“Zzzzz ……”

“Whoa …… Ryuuze-kun is sound asleep, fuah ……”

“Are you okay, Kudelica?”

“Yeah …… I think I breathe in a little.”

Kudelica turns to me, yawning as she pokes at Ryuuze, who has fallen asleep with his mouth wide open. The unconscious Lux was quickly rescued, and then they came towards me to pick up Ryuuze.

“The first round was a fierce battle. Lux-kun looked like a strategist, but he was taken down by Ryuuze-kun. He didn’t forget to make a last-ditch effort by sprinkling sleeping powder on the A-Class.”

“In terms of the rules, they can make an excuse like “Oh, I fell down! Teehee”, but I guess it’s not a very complimentary strategy, and the audience is being a little noisy too.”

“That’s right. Oh, that way of talking was kind of cute, Rosalia-sensei.”

“Uh …… Now, now, the next match is about to begin, Verna-sensei. With Lars in A-Class and Scepter-kun in C-Class.”

In the live broadcast, there was a talk about Lux’s sleeping powder.

It is tolerable to interfere, but incapable to move …… Is it wrong to make the continuation of the competition impossible? I don’t think the upperclassmen use magic like sleep.

“……. Where are you looking?”

“Oh, no, sort of.”

I was looking at C-Class when the person in front of me called out to me and I turned around.

Scepter is narrow-eyed and slender, and does not look like a fighter. His weapon of choice is a wooden sword of the shortsword type, slightly longer than a dagger. He opens his mouth, letting out a sigh.

“Lux, huh? He hasn’t woken up yet. He has tried to use a lot of his tricks, but he couldn’t catch up with it. No, to be honest, we’re completely defeated.”

“We’ve all been practicing together so we wouldn’t lose, after all. How did you do?”

“We were practicing, but it was just an extension of class. I don’t even know if Lux was practicing. Well, Hope was serious, and Nemigo seemed to be working hard because Jack was there …… I don’t know about girls because I don’t talk to them much ……”

You’re the type who doesn’t talk to girls, huh.

Now that I’m talking to my classmates, there’s a line between getting along with them when you’re actually ten and being cool about not talking to them. It’s not that I don’t understand how Scepter feels.

Scepter slouched down and held the shortsword backhanded, narrowing his eyes even more. I also hold my sword half-length and prepared, and take the form of a counterattack, Tigre-sensei rubbed his eyes and waved his hand down.

“Fuah …… Damn, begin already, begin ……”

I blew it off, but I was a little surprised at how much the dust from Lux’s wind affected me.

“……”

“……”

Now, I looked at my stance to concentrate on the fight with Scepter. The stance is quite low, almost a forward lean. Are you the type to step in at once? It seems to me that he is fast for his size.

“…… You’re not coming?”

”Your strength is strange, so I’m going to be cautious.”

I guess he’s not going to come charging? He’s slowly closing the distance between us, so maybe he won’t move to his own distance. Then I’ll–

“Now, just when I thought he was going to wait and see, but it was Scepter-kun that attacked first!”

“I guess he’s one step ahead in verbal tactics?”

“Fuh~!”

“Nn!?”

The moment I was about to head over, he suddenly threw the shortsword in his opposite hand at me with a very small motion. As I flicked the shortsword with my sword, Scepter’s face appeared in front of me.

“Ha!”

“Whoa! You don’t have a weapon, but is that okay?”

“……”

“Lars-kun got some good moves. I expected him to be shaken and take a hit or two, but he managed to avoid it.”

“It seems like he provoked him, but Scepter-kun is calm.”

Like Verna-sensei said, Scepter doesn’t respond to my words, but instead unleashes a series of sharp fists. Perhaps the weapon itself is a fake, and he’s better at hand-to-hand combat. 

“If that’s the case, all I have to do is keep my distance and fight at my distance! .”

“At this range!?”

I shoot a fireball at his feet and make it explode. It’s not that big, so the explosion is small, but it’s enough time to startle him and for me to get in time.

“As expected, shooting a fireball at close range is a surprise, isn’t it♪”

“It seems reckless and doesn’t think of himself, but what do you think. Oh, there’s Lars-kun jumps out of the dust cloud.”

“Take that!”

I saw him frown as he repeatedly swung his sword strike at the scepter’s right wrist and left shoulder. If I push through this, I’ll win. ……!

“You are indeed strong ……! But I’m left-handed, I can still hit with my fists!”

“What!?”

It was a blind spot for me too. There’s no lefty in my class, so I just went for his right hand out of habit. Ah!? This guy took the shortsword to make me assumed that. But I’m not going to lose by that much fake. 

“Now, I never thought that Scepter-kun was left-handed, but I guess that’s what they say about first-time killing.”

“It looks like he wants to be an adventurer, so I’m sure he’s thinking of this and that.”

It definitely caught me off guard, but as I said, I can’t deny that you haven’t practiced enough.

“He avoided it ……!? I thought I had it completely backwards!”

I quickly moved my upper body and avoided the fist that was aiming for my face. I can hear the wind whistling in my ears, but I don’t care, I’m going to drive the hilt of my sword into his stomach.

“Geho!?”

“Get away from me ……!”

“Guah!”

When his stomach is attacked, Scepter steps on it and distances himself away. I then stepped in forcefully and cleaved the body. The iron armor makes a sound like a pot being struck, and Scepter bends in a curve.

“!”

“Uwaaaaaaah!?”

Scepter falls to the ground. I shot the fireball at that moment, it explodes at Scepter’s side and he falls over. Then he stopped moving on his back.

“It seems that there was no direct hit ……?”

Rosalia-sensei says in a mumble. It’s true that he stopped moving and looked at Tigre-sensei. Tigre-sensei looked sleepy, but his very bad eye expression, became with an even worse eye watching the situation. 

“…… Did he fainted? Tigre-sensei, it’s my victory–“

“There!”

I looked at Tigre-sensei for a moment, and the Scepter got up and threw a shortsword at my face. 

But–

“…… I surrender. Tigre-sensei, I’ve lost.”

“Hmm? Oh, yeah! A-Class, Lars wins!”

–When I felt Scepter’s presence moving, I flicked the shortsword away and the sword thrusts into the side of the fallen Scepter’s face.

“There …… can you stand?”

“It was a surprise attack, but it didn’t do any effect at all. Maybe that’s what being really strong is all about.”

I took Scepter’s hand and made him stand up, and Scepter said something like that. I glanced at Tigre-sensei when I heard that.

“Tigre-sensei is a straightforward person, after all. We’ve also worked hard to build up our strength so that we can fight in a straightforward manner.”

“I see. Our homeroom teacher is Samwell-sensei, but he’s very calm. We haven’t had much interaction with the other classes, but can we do a mock battle next time?”

“Of course.”

When I said that with a smile, Scepter was puzzled and shook its shoulders and laughed. I wonder what is it?

“…… Really, I’m no match to you. I’m not going to lose next time. Lux’s interference caused you trouble. I’m sorry about that.”

With that, he turned on his heel and walked off the field. Scepter seems to be a good guy. I thought it would be fun to gather the kids from other classes and play with them, so I went back to the others.

“Welcome back! You were so cool back there!”

“Yeah, yeah! I can’t believe you can use fireball like that!”

“Zzzz ……”

“Ha-ha. I think Ryuuze is saying as expected to you.”

“Haha, really?”

Urka laughed, and we laughed out loud. Next is Kudelica’s turn. I’m looking forward to seeing a different kind of Kudelica.

Lars-kun won this one without a hitch!

Thank you for reading!

[Afterword Theater]

“Well, he handled it easily.”

I guess that’s the extent of what a first year lad can do. I hope hell do well next year ……!