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

Episode 181: Not You

Shudo, using body enhancement to approach Iris, coated his sword in magic power and swung it at a speed invisible to the audience.

“Ha!!”

“Sorry, but I can see it.”

However, Iris, enhancing her eyesight with body enhancement, created a sturdier shield with a denser magic power than before to block Shudo’s incoming sword strike.

“What?!”

It was Shudo who was surprised; until now, coating his sword with magic power allowed him to deflect or cut through magic, but he was taken aback for the first time that he couldn’t cut through Iris’s magic and it was blocked by her spell.

“Your movements have stopped.”

Shudo, halted by the unexpected turn of events, watched as Iris created five water swords and launched them at him.

“Ugh!!”

Shudo quickly recovered, deflecting the descending water swords with his own sword, then took a step back to ready his stance.

“No way, my sword was stopped?”

“Your magic power density is indeed impressive. However, your magic control is quite lacking. It’s like… mithril, perhaps?”

Mithril is an ore used as a material for swords known for its high magical conduction, making it one of the weapon materials often used by capable adventurers.

“Mithril?”

“Yes. Your magic indeed has high density, but your magic control is sloppy. It’s like mithril that increases sharpness and strength simply by flowing magic through it, but that’s all there is to it. You can’t fight by wrapping magic around it like a magic sword, nor can you use it as a weapon with enhancement magic.”

While mithril does have a high magical conductivity, simply flowing magic through it increases sharpness and strength.

Its true value comes when it is imbued with attribute magic, allowing for greater effects with less magic power.

However, using enhancement magic requires high magic control, and Shudo currently lacked the ability to infuse attribute magic.

(But that magic power is really disturbing. Even though I defended with magic, it felt like his magic was flowing into me.)

When Iris defended against Shudo’s attack, she felt a sensation as if his white magic was entering her body, and she began to hear voices echoing in her mind.

“I like that person.”

“That person will help me.”

“If I follow that person, I’ll be happy.”

Those voices, identical to Iris’s own, echoed repeatedly in her head, with an unsettling sensation as if something was invading her body and mind.

(I managed to defend with magic, but if anything else happens, I feel like I might lose myself.)

Iris sensed that if this turned into a long battle, it wouldn’t be just about losing; she might become unhinged. Thus, she decided to end the match swiftly.

“I’m sorry, but I’ll finish it with the next spell.”

“Unfortunately, that won’t be possible. I absolutely cannot be allowed to lose to anyone!”

Once again, the two unleashed their magic; blue and white magic clashed, neither side willing to yield.

“With this strike, I’ll finish this match! Magic Slash!!”

Shudo poured even more magic into his sword than before and swung down from above.

The sword, unable to withstand the magic power, shattered, leaving only the hilt, as the white magic slash rushed toward Iris.

“My feelings belong to me alone! And the one I love is only Lord Lewis!”

The moment Shudo’s magic touched Iris’s magic, something flowed into her way beyond before, whispering love for Shudo and attempting to dominate her.

However, Iris denied those words and increased her magic density to counteract Shudo’s magic, channeling all her overflowing magic into a single spell.

“I was incomplete back then, but this time, I will finish it! Please lend me your power. ‘Sea Dragon King’!!”

As Iris shouted the name of her spell, a dragon, larger and clearer than the one she had used in the rank battle against Fiera, appeared behind her.

The dragon had golden eyes similar to Lewis’s, with deep blue scales matching her magic, exuding an overwhelming presence deserving to be called a true dragon.

“Crush that slash and show your power!”

As Iris swung her arm toward the incoming slashing attack, Leviathan responded to her desire by snapping its jaws at the attack and crushed it with its sharp fangs.

“W-what?! My Magic Slash was crushed!!”

Certainly, the magic power behind Shudo’s Magic Slash was greater than the first, with increased density.

However, against Leviathan, which had its magic density heightened to the extreme through magic control—with barely a gap—it rendered Shudo’s brute magical attacks ineffective; this was the only logical outcome.

“Waaaah!!!”

Leviathan, having crushed the Magic Slash, surged forward and opened its massive jaws to swallow Shudo whole.

And as Leviathan vanished, only Shudo, unconscious and collapsed on the ground, remained.

The audience, who had been watching the final showdown, was left speechless by such an extraordinary display of magic, and even the judging teachers and leaders of the court mage squad were in the same state.

“Judges. Declare the winner.”

As silence enveloped the arena, a voice from the crowd echoed across the arena, snapping the judges back to reality to announce the winner.

“The w-winner! First-year S class! Iris Pestelose!!”

“Waaahhhh!!!!”

The moment the winner was announced, the audience erupted, as if they could no longer contain their pent-up energy, and the loudest cheer of the tournament erupted.

Iris, victorious over Shudo, took a moment to catch her breath, then took a deep breath and gracefully bowed to the applauding crowd before descending from the stage.

~Side Lewis~

“That was amazing.”

“Indeed. I didn’t expect Iris to become that strong.”

As Iris’s match concluded, amidst the ceaseless cheers, Fiera and Shuvina, who had been watching their match, expressed their honest thoughts.

(I was certainly surprised that Iris defeated Shudo. And I didn’t expect her to have completed Leviathan either.)

To be honest, I thought the probability of Iris winning against Shudo in this match was quite low.

This was because for Iris, who could only use magic, Shudo’s Magic Slash and his skills to deflect magic posed a poor matchup, an experience I also had in the past.

However, Iris boldly defied my expectations, using superior magic control and density, surpassing even Sonia and Shuvina, to suppress Shudo’s Magic Slash and even completing an imperfect Leviathan, ultimately securing her victory.

“It seems like Iris has gotten stronger than the past I know.”

“Yeah, she’s definitely strong.”

As Fiera and Shuvina discussed Iris’s match, Sephiria whispered quietly, and I found myself agreeing with her words.

“Is that strength the strongest among you?”

“No. Unfortunately, it’s not the strongest. The strongest was when her power was buffed by the holy sword’s ability.”

Without a doubt, the strongest version of Iris I had known was during the tenth loop when she had been granted powerful buffs by Shudo’s holy sword to fight the demon race, allowing her to use much greater magical power and strong spells repeatedly.

Considering that, her current state, with less magic power and able to use the Sea Dragon King only once, made her weaker in combat ability compared to that time. However, in terms of magic control and density, she undoubtedly surpassed any of the past versions of Iris.

(And this time, I got to see something good. That guy’s magic has something mixed in with it.)

Up until now, I had never really seen Shudo’s interactions with Iris and the others, but when he unleashed his magic on Iris this time, I could certainly sense something else within his magic.

And that something intertwined with Shudo’s magic, wrapping around Iris’s magic like a snake, trying to seep in like water into sand.

(Could that be the cause of the changes in past Iris? How intriguing.)

While I couldn’t definitively state it yet, I judged that the most likely candidate for the cause of the changes to past Iris was Shudo’s peculiar magic. I decided to keep observing his actions moving forward.

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If you’re interested, please check out my concurrently serialized work, “The Former Hero, Becoming the Demon Emperor and Devoting the World.”

https://kakuyomu.jp/works/16817330663836544021

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