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Damian Kraus.

It was a name that held various meanings for Elena.

It was the impetus that allowed her to bravely move forward in the past, a name she had once feared, and now, a name belonging to the one she loved most, so how could it not hold deep significance?

Elena recalled the memories of the time when she had been engaged to Damian.

They weren’t particularly pleasant memories, but they weren’t something she couldn’t bear either. Having overcome the traumas of the past long ago, any feelings lingering were merely remnants worn down by time. Elena momentarily let herself seep into the past and began to reminisce.

Amidst the old memories, a scene she wished to see unfolded like a painting before her eyes.

“Hey, you. Stop right there.”

A familiar yet unwelcoming voice called out. As she turned her gaze toward the source of the voice, she saw Damian, who was usually so composed, now glaring ferociously with a fierce look in his eyes. Perhaps it was because she had spent so much time with him. Even though she knew the man in front of her wasn’t him, a strange feeling washed over her.

The Damian from her memory was glaring at someone who was not her, but rather a male student not far away who was staring back at her. With a piercing glare filled with intent, Damian shot him a look, then strode over confidently.

He pulled a glove from his pocket, threw it at the male student, and simultaneously launched a punch at him.

A heavy thud echoed, followed by the pained groans of the man.

“Ugh—!!”

“Why did you look at Elena like that? Do you not know who she is, or do you not know who I am? No, that can’t be. I stand right beside her. So if you knew who she was, was that look an insult to me? Why no answer? Am I supposed to carve out your eyes here to get a response?”

With his hand gripping the man’s throat and his fist striking his face, there was no chance for an answer. Damian wasn’t ignorant of that fact either. Everyone watching knew it wasn’t the answer to his question that mattered.

Damian tossed the unconscious male student aside, then turned his gaze to his friend standing nearby. The student, seeing his friend being pummeled, froze in fear and let out a small whimper, realizing his own predicament.

“I—I didn’t see anything!! I was just next to him…”

“Shut up. I saw you.”

After throwing the last glove, Damian again used his fist to pound the male student’s head.

He wasn’t dead, but the atmosphere grew very heavy with the sight of the two bloodied boys. Everyone avoided looking at Damian for fear that catching his eyes would lead them to a similar fate. The same went for their gazes toward Elena.

The very reason those guys ended up like that was that they had looked at Elena with lustful eyes, so no one here dared to look at her, fearing they would share the same gruesome fate.

Despite how much he had hit them, the anger on Damian’s face showed no signs of abating. He still clenched his bloodied fist and glared down at the two boys sprawled on the ground.

When he turned his head once, everyone averted their eyes. The terror he had instilled dominated them. Damian took a moment to survey his surroundings, seemingly satisfied with the current atmosphere, before finally calming the fury that had clouded his face.

He wiped the blood off his hands with a handkerchief and threw the blood-stained handkerchief at the boys he had knocked down.

“Let’s go.”

Returning to Elena, he firmly grasped her hand. Although he was holding her tightly enough to cause her some pain, tears gathered in Elena’s eyes, but he showed no sign of loosening his grip. With that, he led her away, leaving everyone behind.

The replay of the memory ended there.

Many other memories existed, but since most were similar to this one, she didn’t strive to recall them. She had watched to understand why no one looked at her in a certain way while she was engaged to Damian, so this was sufficient.

“Hmm…”

Indeed, it was an old memory, so it didn’t stir much emotion.

Perhaps it was because the time she spent with him was overwhelmingly more than the time he had been Damian. To her, he had now become “that guy,” and so it was.

Emotions tied to memories fade with time.

Thus, Elena could observe Damian’s image in the memory without becoming emotional. Had it been in the past, she would have felt nothing but anger towards him during such recollections, but now, seeing his actions allowed her to understand a little why he had kept others from looking at her.

Elena began to understand why the past children had been so unable to touch her.

The Damian in her memories had suppressed those around him with his power and status.

Just the fact that he was the heir of Kraus meant that ordinary people wouldn’t dare touch him, but Damian demonstrated what would happen if one went against his mood, just as he had before.

Thus, the people around him had no choice but to be afraid of him.

The sense of fear those children had shown to Damian stemmed from his actions.

And this fear of Damian became a wall between Elena and the children.

A wall far more difficult and solid to overcome than the one she had built against Damian. Since Damian had long held an image of a tyrant and had exercised his might through fists and swords, his method would always prove far more effective than the pressure of mere intimidation Elena could exert.

In the end, the difference between him and her lay in showing what would happen if he retaliated versus her not doing so.

“Then, should I respond in kind…”

Elena murmured as she looked at her hands before shaking her head.

She couldn’t replicate Damian’s actions. Not only was it against her nature, but she had no desire to live in such a reckless manner. However, she didn’t oppose the idea of showing an example directly; if she didn’t act firmly, it felt as though the same situations would arise again.

“It’s a situation where I can legally wield power… A combat practice, huh.”

Even in a scholarly atmosphere like the Department of Magic, duels among students were not unheard of. It would be a perfect opportunity to set an example.

She wasn’t sure what her peers thought of her usual image, but she had to implant the idea that they shouldn’t provoke her, even if it wasn’t as fierce as the fear they had of Damian. Otherwise, they would continue to clash and overstep the line.

As her thoughts organized on what to do moving forward, she suddenly had a thought.

“Is this obsession?”

It was a question she tossed to herself.

Looking back at Damian from the past, she found parts of herself overlapping with him, which led to this thought. While she hadn’t crossed lines quite like that, she had some similarities.

“What does it matter.”

Elena took a moment to think and then admitted to herself that she was indeed fixated on him.

When considering the love, possessiveness, and desire for exclusivity she felt toward him collectively, it wouldn’t be a stretch to call it obsession. Yet, she didn’t necessarily feel the need to change anything; despite once suffering under a similar obsession from another, she didn’t feel like she was doing anything wrong.

Elena understood the difference between herself and Damian.

She wouldn’t engage in actions that he disliked, and unlike Damian, who was unilaterally possessive, her feelings were reciprocated. This was a significant difference and the reason her actions were permissible. Conversely, the fact that he shared feelings similar to hers eased her mind.

*

“Damian, focus. This isn’t like you.”

“Uh, right. Sorry.”

Reinhardt’s comment jolted me back to reality. I normally wasn’t like this, but maybe it was due to the tumult from the incident; the dream I had last night clung to my mind, making me lose my focus.

It wasn’t an ominous or strange dream. If I had to categorize it, it would probably be a good dream.

Only Elena and I appeared in the dream, and there wasn’t anything particularly eventful. It was simply a dream where Elena hugged me tightly, and we lay in a flower field talking. That was all there was to it.

Whenever I tried to turn to admire other flowers around, Elena would press my chin down, telling me to look at her and not anywhere else, forcing me to gaze only at her, but still, it wasn’t a strange dream.

Perhaps.

As we lay in the flower field, I listened to Elena express her feelings about our previous encounter, comforting her, and we exchanged various stories. We spoke about the worries we each had; Elena was concerned about me being confessed to by other girls, while I worried about her being confessed to by other boys.

In reality, discussing such topics was something to shy away from, but since it was a dream, it felt easy to express everything freely. Seeing her smile while listening to my troubles calmed my heart, even in a dream.

After a while, I noticed that Elena had already closed her eyes and gone to sleep first. So, I too shut my eyes and woke up in my own bed. Only then did I realize that it had been a dream.

“It must be a dream…?”

It had been a long time since I experienced a dream so vivid; I seemed unable to shake off the feeling. Perhaps it was my imagination, but I thought I could even smell lavender wafting from my body.

Crackle—

When Reinhardt unleashed his aura, wrapping it around his fist, my mind cleared instantly. I wasn’t the only one who had grown in a month, so thinking about other things while facing Reinhardt would be impossible.

Refocusing, I looked at the opponent before me, who was now glaring at me with fiery blue eyes, crowned by a storm of electricity. Reinhardt spoke.

“I’m coming.”

“Bring it on.”

Despite usually never releasing his grip on his sword, today was different; he rushed at me unarmed. The sheer power of his raw attacks, charged with his aura, was enough to make any blade seem weak, but when compared to the techniques that he had honed his entire life, it didn’t come close.

Still, a genius is a genius; his posture for punching was nearly perfect, free of any unnecessary movements.

It appeared he instinctively knew how to hit with maximum force. I sidestepped the hurricane-like strikes of Reinhardt, sending a few feints his way to test the waters. Had I been armed, I would have torn through his blow, but since Reinhardt had opted to go without, I too set my sword aside to match the scale.

Thanks to the nature of his aura, a direct hit would leave me with a tingling sensation down to my core, so I needed to avoid colliding fists as much as possible. The issue, however, was that if I didn’t engage, I would simply run away, and there would be no resolution. Eventually, engagement was necessary, but I didn’t want to start off with that tingling sensation.

I shot a few energy blasts from my fingertips toward the vital points on him, then leaped into the air, scattering my aura.

If he was lightning, then I was fire, and black flames poured down like rain from the sky. In response, he summoned a storm of electricity from his hands to counter it. The clash of lightning and fire gave the impression of a battle of aura or simply an exchange of powers, but it was only natural to do everything we could in the throes of a duel.

Bzzzzt—

Fire and lightning swallowed each other with noisy booms.

Having jumped into the air, I naturally fell back to the ground under gravity’s law. I aimed my foot toward Reinhardt, who was below me, cutting through the chaos of fire and lightning. Maybe he hadn’t anticipated my descension, but he reacted just in time to cross his forearms to block the attack only after I had already landed right in front of him.

Putting considerable power into my kick, even though Reinhardt managed to block it, he had to roll on the ground afterward. After rolling a few times on the ground, he finally sprang back up to his feet, regaining his stance.

“Not a pretty sight.”

“You’re covered in dirt, buddy.”

Reinhardt was covered in dirt after rolling in the ground, but I was in a similar state myself. Despite being surrounded by aura, it was impossible to push through the fire and lightning unscathed. Consequently, my hair stood up wildly, and the smell of burning seemed to linger in my nose.

Considering how both of us were in disarray, it was hard to determine who held the upper hand.

I packed aura into my right hand and launched an attack, while Reinhardt launched a counter. The amount of aura I contained was slightly more than his, giving me a small edge. In reality, if I didn’t pour out more aura, his would seep into me and overwhelm my body.

After squaring off for a moment, as I tried to move my right hand, Reinhardt, too, decided to respond by thrusting his fist out. However, I wasn’t going for a strike; I was merely feigning offense to gauge his reaction, so when Reinhardt fell for my ruse, he found himself easily caught.

“Put some strength into your core.”

“!!”

Even though we each grabbed each other’s arms, the initiative was mine.

As I pulled his arm, Reinhardt was drawn toward me, and I raised my knee to punch him in the abdomen. Since the danjeon, the source of aura, was in the abdomen, a blow there would affect his control.

At that moment, when Reinhardt briefly lost control of his aura, I seized the opportunity to unleash a reserve of energy, sending him sailing far away.

Rolling on the ground once more, this time Reinhardt did not get up like before.

He raised his arm to concede he had lost. Having barely achieved victory, I too sank down on the ground, pleased with his acknowledgment of defeat.

As I sat on the ground, catching my breath, I caught sight of our swords resting nearby, so I posed a question.

“Why are you using your fists today instead of your sword? I feel like this is the first time we’ve been boxing only from the beginning.”

“The first time we sparred, I might not have lost in swordsmanship, but I knew I had lost in close combat. I thought being a knight only required skill with a sword, but it turns out that’s not the case. You have to be able to think about unexpected situations.”

“Would it be enough to know how to block those unexpected situations with a sword?”

For a moment, Reinhardt looked at me before replying with a weary tone.

“That’s a fair point. The issue is that I can’t do that just yet. I wish I could grow more as a knight, but for now, I thought it was best to close the gap with you quickly this way. Besides, my hands are freer than with a sword, allowing me to move faster. What do you think? Am I wrong?”

“How would I know? By the way, why are you so proficient with your hands when you’ve trained with a sword all your life?”

As I rubbed my palms together, Reinhardt chuckled in response.

“I practiced whenever I could.”

“I practiced too. This is what talented folks are like…”

He looked at me with an expression of disbelief again, but from my perspective, it was absurd that he would find it amusing. After all, I had experienced reincarnation, and I owed this proficiency to that previous life. It felt more unjust that someone like Reinhardt, with no history of such, could come close to matching me.

To catch our breath, we sat quietly for a moment, gazing at the sky.

The clear, cloudless sky seemed infinite.

In a fleeting thought, I found myself wishing to leave something behind, anything, against the blue sky devoid of footprints. It was akin to the desire to leave a mark on a blank canvas that no one had tread upon, but now, I felt it wasn’t an impossible task.

As I stared at the sky in silence, sleepiness began to wash over me, but just before my eyes could close, Reinhardt opened his mouth first.

“I heard that the Department of Magic will be having a combat practice between students next class. Want to go watch?”

He was suggesting we go learn how to deal with magic users. I never expected any talk of ditching class to come from Reinhardt, so I responded with some reluctance.

“What about class?”

“The next class is swordsmanship. Missing one wouldn’t be a big deal.”

“That’s fair. Let’s take Noel along too.”

There was no way around skipping swordsmanship class.

 

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