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

Chapter 176: Sharueina’s Strength

On the stage, Sharueina faced off against an opponent, a third-year student from Class S, who was noted in the tournament bracket as being ranked third.

Sharueina drew the sword hanging at her waist. It was a unique weapon, featuring a single-edged blade with a slight curve and a beautiful ripple pattern.

“Is that a sword? I’ve never seen a shape like that before.”

Sitting next to her, Shuvina stared at Sharueina’s sword with great interest, seemingly captivated by its exquisite craftsmanship.

“That’s a katana; it’s a traditional weapon from a country to the east. The swords we usually use are double-edged straight swords, but over there, that single-edged, curved design is the norm.”

“What’s the difference?”

Even Fiera, who typically didn’t use weapons, seemed intrigued by the unfamiliar weapon and looked as if she wanted a more detailed explanation.

“I don’t know all the details either, but it seems that unlike swords, katanas are focused on cutting. By curving the blade, it allows for cutting with less force, and their sharpness is reportedly superior to that of swords. The most distinctive feature is that ripple pattern on the blade, which is achieved through a special technique that involves multiple tempering processes to prove its strength and sharpness.”

“It’s incredibly beautiful.”

“And on top of that, there’s the Iaido technique that utilizes that curvature for drawing the sword. Just cutting down from an upper stance is already a remarkable weapon, but the real danger lies in Iaido. Mastering Iaido means you can slash at someone without them even realizing you’ve drawn your sword. It’s truly an attack of godly speed.”

In the future, this was precisely the Iaido that Sharueina excelled at, and during her seventh life, when she attacked the Empire using monsters, her single strike felled dozens of beasts in an instant, and I myself lost my left arm.

“However, it’s just a close-combat weapon, right? No matter how strong Sharueina is within the school, if she can’t close the distance with a magic user like me, it doesn’t matter at all, right? It’d be a different story if she could transform like Fiera, but Sharueina is human so she can’t do that.”

“Sonia, that kind of thinking is a bit shortsighted.”

“Why?”

“Well, you’ll understand once you see. The opponent this time seems to be a magician, so you should watch her fighting style and learn.”

As we turned our full attention back to the arena, the teacher acting as the referee signaled the start, and finally, Sharueina’s match began.

—Side Sharueina—

When the referee signaled the start, Sharueina lowered her stance, placing her hand on the sword’s hilt, focusing her mind to draw at any moment.

Then, as if to distract her, her male opponent took a step back and started talking.

“Your Highness, I witnessed your fight last year. It was quite an intriguing battle.”

“Oh really? And what did you think of my combat?”

“Well, I must say, with all due respect, I’ve concluded that you wouldn’t be a match for me.”

“Oh? Interesting. Could you elaborate?”

“Certainly. The Iaido you use, Your Highness, is indeed fast and powerful. However, that only matters if you can get within the range of the sword, the effective distance. If you’re matched against someone who specializes in close combat, you might have a chance, but against a magic user like me, it’s a bad matchup.”

“So what you’re trying to say is, if you can’t close in, there’s no way for you to win against me?”

“Pardon my presumption, but that’s exactly right. Additionally, my specialty is fire magic, while I understand Your Highness specializes in ice magic. Fire is weak against ice; with that logic, I should win this match.”

“Got it.”

“Well then, would you kindly surrender…”

“It seems you don’t understand me at all.”

“…What do you mean?”

Taken aback by her unexpected response, the male student showed a hint of surprise as Sharueina took a step forward without dropping her stance, and in the next moment, she had the peak of her sword pressed against his neck.

“…Huh?”

“Did you see that? If you did, then impressive, but if you didn’t, then that says it all.”

By implication, Sharueina conveyed that he didn’t understand anything about her and she sheathed her sword, slowly backing away.

“Well, that just now might have been possible because you were off your guard. So now, try attacking without letting your guard down. Let’s properly have a match.”

“Ugh… I apologize. It seems my thinking was naive. Please allow me another round.”

“Of course.”

Returning to her original position, Sharueina lowered her stance once more and placed her hand on the sword, narrowing her eyes to observe her opponent.

“Now, I shall begin. ‘Pillar of Flames,’ ‘Fire Bird!’”

The male student first surrounded Sharueina with six pillars of flame, reducing her escape routes, and then sent ten fire birds created from flames towards her from the remaining escape routes.

“I see. I was curious why there were escape routes, but it turns out it was to launch the next spell from there. Not bad. Not bad, but…”

Sharueina quickly assessed both the pillars of flames and the approaching fire birds, slowly exhaling.

“‘Physical Enhancement.’”

Using Physical Enhancement, Sharueina expertly slipped between the brief openings of the fire birds and even dashed nimbly between the towering pillars of flames.

“Crap! ‘Wall of Fire!’”

As Sharueina emerged from the pillars of flame, the male student tried to create a wall of fire between them to buy time, but Sharueina paid it no mind and closed the distance.

“You just said that my ice magic can’t compete with your fire magic, right? But that’s a rather naive line of thought.”

Gazing intently at the wall of fire before her, Sharueina flowed a pale blue magic power into her sword.

“Iaido, First Technique… ‘Ice Blade Slash.’”

In just an instant. Sharueina’s body shifted slightly, and the wall of fire in front of her was cleanly bisected at the center, with the part that was cut beginning to freeze.

“Wha?! My wall of fire… froze…”

The male student was astonished by this unnatural phenomenon, momentarily freezing in place.

In that opening, Sharueina appeared before him, switching to holding the sword vertically, she struck upwards with the hilt, lifting his chin, and as his body floated, she struck again with the hilt.

“Guah?!”

“You shouldn’t show a surprised face during a fight. It’s practically saying you can’t handle it.”

Having boosted her attack power with enhancement magic, the male student gasped painfully, struggling to breathe and could no longer even muster the words to cast magic.

“In that state, you can’t even say surrender, can you? So, I’m sorry, but please take a little nap.”

Placing her hand on his head, Sharueina rapidly lowered his body temperature with ice magic, and the male student, unable to resist the drowsiness, collapsed as he lost consciousness.

“Winner! Second-Year Class S! Sharueina Ruzerias!”

“Waaaah!!!!”

Demonstrating overwhelming strength to the audience, Sharueina lightly waved to greet them before descending from the stage and returning to the waiting room.

—Side Lewis—

After Sharueina’s match concluded, perhaps overwhelmed by her strength, no one around me spoke, and aside from the audience, it was eerily quiet.

“Sonia.”

“W-what is it…?”

“What do you think after seeing that?”

“What do you mean…?”

“Can you still say that you, as a magic user, are at an advantage?”

Sonia fell silent for a moment, seemingly simulating a battle with Sharueina in her mind, mumbling to herself.

“…Well, I’ll take back what I said earlier. While it’s true that I can attack from a distance, which gives me a broader attack range and more options, if my magic gets cut, it’s pointless. Plus, she hardly used any magic at all. That means she has other tools besides her swordsmanship, right? And the most terrifying part is her judgment and decisiveness. Even with magic closing in, her ability to calmly find the narrow gaps and dive right in without hesitation is formidable.”

As Sonia stated, intentionally charging into approaching magic is something impossible for most. The general reflex is to counter with a weapon or dodge.

Yet, Sharueina executes crucial decisions with composure, possessing the guts to carry them out and the keen insight needed to do so, allowing her to stride confidently towards magic.

“Even if a gap is found, people still have a part of them that fears, which dulls their judgment. An experienced warrior might trust their instincts without hesitation, but she’s still a student. For her to make such a decision…”

“Because she has confidence in her own abilities… no, she believes in what she’s built up so far. It just shows that she’s trained seriously in both magic and martial arts.”

“So, do you think you can defeat her?”

“Hmm. I’d like to say with confidence that I can win, but honestly, I’m not sure. But that doesn’t mean I’ve come this far with a half-hearted attitude. Moreover, there are countless ways to approach it. If I’m going to challenge her, I won’t entertain the notion of losing from the start; that would be boring.”

Sonia, laughing as she said that, seemed genuinely excited, too eager to face Sharueina despite not knowing if she could win.

“Ha ha. That’s good. It’s important to have that challenging spirit. You’ve really changed. You used to only think about running away or sacrificing yourself.”

“Well, you could say that someone gave me a good talking to, so maybe that’s what caused the change.”

“Pfft. Look at you, talking back now. Well, when you face off against Sharueina, I’ll be looking forward to seeing what you do.”

“Leave it to me. If I keep winning, we’ll eventually face each other. I’m sure it’ll turn into a great match.”

If Sonia wins tomorrow, the pairing for the third day will be changed once more via a draw.

At that point, there’s a chance she could face Sharueina right from the first match, or conversely, if she doesn’t make it to the finals, they might never meet.

(Well, those two probably won’t lose to any of the other students, so I suppose I should just enjoy the show.)

The matches continued, and come the end of the first day, both Iris and Sharueina had secured two victories, advancing to the third day.

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If you also enjoy the concurrent serialization ‘Former Hero, The Demon Emperor, and the World Sacrifice,’ please check it out!

https://kakuyomu.jp/works/16817330663836544021

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