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Chapter 14
‘This should be enough.’
Only then did Genevieve finally relax a little before turning her eyes back toward the piste.
The male student she had just been talking to spoke with the assistant referee, and the assistant referee hurried over to Charles’s group just like the student had earlier and passed along the message. Then one of the boys stepped out of the group and whispered something to the referee.
‘Wouldn’t it be simpler to just tell the referee directly?’
While wondering about their terribly inefficient way of communicating, the referee ended the timeout.
The match resumed.
“…….”
But the positions of the two fencers on the piste looked strange.
Charles was kneeling, trying to avoid the blade, while Edward’s sword was pointed toward Charles’s chest.
The situation had completely changed from before.
At that moment, the referee called out to Charles on the piste. Edward immediately withdrew his blade.
Charles awkwardly stood back up as if nothing had happened and casually crooked his finger. The referee approached him and quietly explained the situation.
Charles immediately glared at Genevieve.
Then he cursed loudly and threw his mask onto the ground with a sharp clang.
“The match ends here! If you want to watch more, come to the public training sessions starting next week!”
The referee tried to redirect the students’ attention away from Charles while his group attempted to calm him down.
Since most of them were from the same year, they had no trouble making the excuse sound believable. Genevieve was honestly impressed by how quickly the referee adapted and pretended this whole thing had merely been a “preview” of the upcoming public training.
One by one, the students began leaving the arena.
Edward and Charles stood at opposite ends of the piste, removing their equipment.
Genevieve walked toward Edward.
He had already taken off his mask and was wiping away sweat. Red marks left by Charles’s scoring strikes remained scattered across Edward’s fencing uniform.
“…….”
But the moment Edward saw Genevieve, his expression darkened.
Before she could even speak, he spoke first.
“……You didn’t have to help me.”
“…….”
Holding his mask in one hand, Edward spoke with obvious dissatisfaction in his voice.
Honestly, Genevieve would have been lying if she said she was not shocked. This was the first time Edward had ever spoken to her like this.
She felt flustered.
“……I’m sorry.”
Seeing Genevieve’s expression darken, Edward flinched and repeatedly rubbed his face.
“……Still, I wanted you to trust me more. I’m sorry.”
After saying that, Edward repeated his apology once again.
‘Ah…….’
Hearing those words, Genevieve slowly turned her eyes toward the table beside the piste where she had been standing moments earlier.
13 to 12.
In that short period of time, Edward had completely overwhelmed Charles while allowing him only one additional point.
Edward had actually been leading during the second half of the match.
And Genevieve had been the one who ruined his moment.
“……I’m sorry.”
She felt like she had interfered for no reason at all. Genevieve bit down on her lower lip.
“I have to organize the equipment.”
Leaving behind only those words, Edward stepped down from the piste.
* * *
Edward had recklessly told Charles, a member of the fencing club, that he wanted to join for one reason alone:
He wanted to go to the Myon Empire.
“Ednerd, you’ve gone crazy.”
Charles mocked him, but once he realized Edward was serious, he immediately began scheming.
“If you want to join, then not us, you should—”
Charles violently stepped on Christopher’s foot before he could carelessly say that Edward should actually go speak to the supervising professor instead.
And just like that, before Edward could even blink, he found himself surrounded by dozens of people and forced into a match where not a single person was on his side.
“This isn’t Épée. It’s Fleuret.”
Edward frowned.
In Fleuret, only the torso was a valid target.
But Charles stabbed and slashed anywhere his blade could reach. Even with protective gear on, the pain was still real.
“So? It doesn’t count as points anyway.”
Charles grinned.
He continuously broke the rules while attacking Edward. The strength behind his large body caused tremendous pain even when the blade merely grazed him.
If Charles had followed the rules properly, counterattacking would not have been difficult. But since Edward never knew where Charles would strike next, he had no choice but to focus entirely on defense.
And like that, Edward helplessly lost the first bout.
Charles had said Edward only needed to win once out of three bouts to join, but if things continued like this, Edward almost wanted to give up on Myon altogether.
While the second bout was underway, Edward finally decided to call for a timeout and surrender.
But before he could, Charles called the timeout first.
The reason, as always, was simply to mock him.
Edward was just about to ignore Charles and give up.
“……Senior?”
Then he saw Genevieve on the opposite side.
Irritation was visible on her face.
But while walking toward the table in the center of the piste, she quickly smoothed out her expression as if nothing had happened.
Once she reached the table, Genevieve said something to the scorekeeper.
Because she had her back turned toward him, Edward could not hear their conversation.
But one thing became absolutely clear to him.
‘I want to win.’
He wanted to win.
Even if nobody in this place was on his side, Genevieve was here.
The match resumed.
Thanks to enduring all of Charles’s attacks, Edward had roughly figured out his patterns.
Charles’s attacks, powered by his large physique, were threatening, but they also revealed openings.
And since the referee was clearly on Charles’s side, there was only one thing Edward could do.
Completely overwhelm him.
Just as Edward expected, Charles swung his blade recklessly.
Because Charles had practically shown off all his techniques in the previous bout, the rest became easy.
Edward scored point after point before Charles could even react.
The gap of eight points quickly shrank to only two.
Edward briefly glanced toward the left side of the arena.
Genevieve was still speaking with the scorekeeper.
“Where are you looking?”
Charles snarled.
Laughter broke out after Charles stabbed Edward in the side, apparently pleased with himself.
Edward frowned.
His mood was already terrible, and hearing the voice of the person responsible only made his irritation worse.
“Your Highness. If you wish to live, do not stand out.”
Mr. Milford’s words echoed in his ears once again.
But wouldn’t it be fine as long as his face was hidden behind the protective mask?
He had already attracted attention anyway. Going a little further would not change anything now.
‘If I win…… maybe she’ll be happy.’
An unexpectedly foolish thought suddenly surfaced in his mind.
From that moment onward, Edward completely controlled the match.
As though personally proving that Charles’s earlier points had only been luck, Edward practically flew across the piste.
Even the watching students could easily tell Edward was going to win.
Only three points remained until victory.
In less than a single minute, Edward had scored eight points.
“Time!”
At that moment, the referee suddenly called another timeout.
Edward withdrew the blade he had just thrust into Charles’s chest.
And just like that, the match ended meaninglessly.
The referee may have been the one to stop the match, but it was obvious Genevieve had influenced that decision.
“…….”
Edward quietly watched Genevieve’s back as she left the arena.
Of course he knew she had acted with good intentions.
As far as Edward knew, nobody was kinder than Genevieve.
But he had never imagined that her kindness, completely without malice, could still crush him like this.
Edward touched the area near his shoulder where Charles had stabbed him.
Red powder stained his palm.
Genevieve had shown him kindness.
Her actions were undoubtedly correct.
‘Still.’
Still.
Edward repeated the word once more in his heart.
He had wanted her to think well of him.
* * *
The first afternoon class was Common Language.
It was the language nobles used when speaking with nobles from other countries, and aside from a few complicated grammar rules, Edward spoke it quite fluently.
“Student Edward? Could you translate the fifth line on page 108?”
Because of that, even if he did not focus completely during class, he could still easily translate the ancient texts that sounded almost like riddles.
“Excellent translation. But try paying a little more attention during class.”
Professor Rodriguez lightly warned him before continuing the lesson.
But contrary to the professor’s hopes, Edward could not focus at all.
His mind was still stuck on lunchtime.
What if he had not snapped at Genevieve?
What if he had taken the match seriously from the very beginning?
Meaningless assumptions piled up one after another, filling him with regret.
While Edward silently blamed himself for what happened during lunch, knocking suddenly came from the classroom’s front door.
The interruption broke the flow of the lesson, and Professor Rodriguez opened the door with an annoyed expression.
“Apologies for interrupting class. I’m looking for a student named Edmund— no, Edward.”
The short, stocky man read from the paper in his hand.
It was a familiar face.
If Edward remembered correctly, he was one of the fencing club’s coaches.
Just like now, he often entered during Common Language class to call out fencing club students. Because of that, Professor Rodriguez disliked him immensely.
The moment Edward’s name came out of the coach’s mouth, every student in the classroom turned to look at him.
The sudden attention made Edward shrink back nervously.
Seeing Edward tense up, Professor Rodriguez answered for him.
“He’s here.”
“Excellent! I’ll be borrowing student Edward for a moment. Here’s the confirmation slip.”
The man handed a paper to Professor Rodriguez.
“I’ve confirmed it. But Allen, please refrain from interrupting class in the future.”
“I’ll be careful.”
But both the students and Professor Rodriguez knew he would continue doing it anyway.
After all, this same conversation had already happened countless times before.
Professor Rodriguez tilted his head slightly.
It was a signal telling Edward to hurry up and go so class could continue.
