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The Villainous Noble Who Kept Rewinding After Death: The Story Somehow Changed When I Committed Suicide

Episode 147 (・・・) Rank One

When I delivered Iris to the infirmary and returned to the training grounds, the stage that had been broken in the earlier battle was beautifully restored, and in the center stood Ride, wielding a sword, with a slightly sulky Fiera beside him.

“What’s the situation now?”

“Oh, welcome back. We’re on a short break, and the finals are about to begin.”

“Hmph. So, what’s with Fiera looking all grumpy?”

“Well, you’ll find out if you just watch.”

Shuvina said that, clenching her fists a bit regretfully, while Sonia, standing nearby, seemed to be enduring something, biting her lip.

(What on earth happened?)

I thought as I focused on the stage, where Ride was mocking me for being weaker, while Fiera was egging him on in return.

After a bit of banter between the two, a tired-looking Lime signaled the start, and the final battle began.

Going back in time a bit, after Lewis took Iris out of the training ground, following a brief break, Fiera and Ride were facing each other in the center of the stage.

“Your battle earlier was impressive.”

“Thanks.”

Surprisingly, it was Ride who spoke first, genuinely complimenting Fiera and Iris’s fight.

“Miss Pestelouz’s magic was splendid, but your skills were truly remarkable. What was your name again?”

“Fiera.”

“Fiera, huh. Hmm. But that makes it even harder to understand.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean that. The elf girl you fought before as well—why are you all with a guy like that?”

“A guy like that…?”

“The one who was with you. He’s the heir to a duke’s house, yet he’s a lazy, arrogant, spoiled noble disgrace. I seriously can’t grasp why you stick around with someone like that.”

Ride said, shaking his head dramatically and exhaling deeply while crossing his arms.

“I don’t know what brought you to be with that guy, but my advice is this: you should get away from him as soon as possible. Otherwise, your wonderful talents will rot away.”

“Are we done?”

“…What?”

“I heard the nonsense was over.”

“Nonsense? I’m saying this for your sake! Environment changes people. If you keep hanging out with that guy, you won’t be able to expect any future growth.”

“Huh.”

“What?”

“You understand nothing. The only reason we could grow this much is thanks to El. Without El, we wouldn’t have gotten this strong.”

“What kind of ridiculous thing are you saying? There’s no way that guy has that kind of power. From what I’ve seen, he’s obviously weaker than you two.”

“If you can’t see that, your skills are this level. You’re so weak, you wouldn’t even compare to Iris. Let me tell you that.”

“Ugh, finally finished the repairs. You guys really break the stage too much, you know? By the way, you both seem so eager.”

As Fiera and Ride glared at each other, Lime, having finished the repairs, stepped back onto the stage.

“Ugh, I just have this feeling the stage is going to break again. Ah, whatever. I’ll fix it anyway, so go wild! Now! We’re about to start the final battle, any questions?”

“Sensei.”

“What is it, Fiera-chan?”

“For this match, it’s not your judgment that decides the winner but the one who surrenders loses. Can we continue until someone surrenders?”

“Hmm. It’s possible, but only if the opponent agrees. I’m the teacher, so I have to protect my students.”

“Got it. What about you?”

“Hmph. If you do that, you’ll regret it.”

“Regret? That’s funny. There’s no way I will lose to someone of your caliber. Or are you feeling insecure?”

“Tch. You’re infuriating. Fine, I’ll accept those terms too.”

“Wow, there are a lot of troublemakers this year. So, let’s keep it reasonable, okay? Begin!”

With Lime’s signal, Ride drew his sword, which shone crimson like burning flames, and slowly took his stance.

“Magic Sword.”

“Indeed. One of the four magic swords in my family, the Flame Sword Kryush. Legend says its flames can burn everything to ashes.”

The reason the House of Holstein is known as the Sword Saint isn’t just due to their exceptional swordsmanship, but also because of the four powerful magic swords passed down through generations.

The Flame Sword Kryush is said to possess such high firepower that a single swing can scorch the skies and is more powerful than Lewis’s Flame Sword Ignid.

“How’s that? Regretting it yet?”

“Not really. Those flames are nothing to me.”

When Ride swung his sword, leaving a red trail in the air, Fiera didn’t even flinch, instead covering her right hand with golden aura and reaching toward his sword.

“What…?”

“This is it?”

Despite being said to burn everything, Fiera casually grabbed the sword, wearing a disappointed look as if to say it was underwhelming.

“Shit. How cheeky. How about this then!”

After briefly creating some distance, Ride repositioned his sword and charged forward.

His swordsmanship was indeed impressive, showcasing many refined techniques like feints and gaze manipulation, placing him among the best in the academy.

However, that was only within the academy’s context. Following Lewis, who was eager to die, and having gone through numerous death battles, plus being trained by Lewis himself, Fiera wasn’t someone who could be fazed by student-level attacks.

As a result, Ride’s sword techniques were all dodged, evaded, and then parried.

“Why? Why isn’t my swordsmanship… the Flame Sword Kryush’s flames not working…?”

“I think your swordsmanship is strong among the academy’s ranks. But it’s solely within the academy. On top of that, you’re not even utilizing half of that magic sword’s power. With that, there’s no way you could win against me.”

As Fiera pointed out, Ride had yet to unlock even half of the Flame Sword Kryush’s true potential due to his poor control over his magic power.

A magic sword doesn’t just work by pouring in magic power; each sword has its own wavelength of magical power.

The higher the rarity of the magic sword, the more complex that wavelength becomes, and with the Flame Sword Kryush, its difficulty level is among the top echelon of magic swords.

“Shit. But I can’t lose here. I need to be number one at this academy…”

“Enough. This is boring. I’m tired, so I’ll finish this.”

As Ride muttered in frustration, Fiera closed the distance between them, punching upwards with such speed Ride couldn’t even see it before landing a spinning kick to the side of his head.

“Kaah!”

With the sheer weight of the attack causing him to almost lose consciousness, Ride struck his head against the ground hard enough that he didn’t lose consciousness completely.

“Sensei.”

“What is it, Fiera-chan?”

“I surrender.”

“Huh? Surrender?”

“Yeah. I surrender. I lost.”

“Are you sure? Looking at your skills, I think you’re the strongest here.”

“I’m not interested in rankings. I just wanted to show this guy who mocked El the reality.”

“…Sigh. Alright. I said this academy allows freedom, so I’ll acknowledge it. By Fiera’s surrender, the winner is Ride-kun!”

Lime declared the winner, but no one in the audience cheered, leaving everyone bewildered about how to react.

“W-wait…”

Amidst it all, Ride reached out to Fiera with a face smeared in humiliation, but she just smirked at him.

“Hehe. Good for you. Just like you said during your self-introduction, now you’re the best in this grade.”

That was Fiera’s maximum sarcasm in response to Ride’s declaration from his self-introduction about being number one in class.

“Ugh… damn it, damn it, damn it!!”

Despite losing due to overwhelming strength, Ride was humiliated by having his title handed to him and banged his fists against the ground in frustration.

With his pride so high and loathing anything less than effort, he thrummed with a fury and bitterness he had never felt before in his life.

 

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