I Became the Academy Chapter 103

Chapter 103

【 Inn 】

“Were you saying you were curious about ?”

“I’ve heard plenty about you from here and there. But those were always from others. I never had a proper conversation with you, the person yourself.”

Sara didn’t speak in her usual tone that looked down on .

For her, she spoke rather politely.

“So until the others arrive, I want to hear about you… no, I want to have a proper conversation with you.”

“If it’s sothing like that, I also welco it.”

I answered and looked at Sara.

I wondered why she suddenly showed

this kind of attitude.

The proud Sara I knew would never have shown

anything like this.

‘Did she swallow her pride because she lost in a duel where she went all out? But in the ga, no matter how much she lost, she never acknowledged defeat and kept being hostile. Did sothing change in her mindset?’

Various questions floated in my head, yet I couldn’t find a proper answer.

So I set the thoughts aside for now and focused again on my conversation with Sara.

“In that sense… may I ask what exactly you wanted to talk about with ?”

“…About your swordsmanship.”

“My swordsmanship?”

Sara gave a small nod and continued.

“Normally, a swordsman kept training one sword style until they completely mastered it. But you don’t use just one.”

“Yes, that’s right.”

“Why? Why do you embrace multiple sword styles?”

Sara looked as though she had no other intention—purely curious.

“Of course, there are people like Instructor Luke who used multiple sword styles. But even he mastered his own swordsmanship first before learning any others.”

“Hmmm.”

I organized my thoughts for a mont.

The reason I started touching all sorts of sword styles was definitely…

“It may sound arrogant, but I believe I’ve already reached a certain level of mastery in my own swordsmanship—in other words, in my defensive sword style.”

“…It does sound arrogant, but it’s not wrong. In fact, it’d be hard to find a swordsman in the Arium Empire capable of breaking your defense.”

I gave a slightly awkward smile at Sara’s acknowledgent and continued.

“But I’m well aware of my swordsmanship’s limits. Because I can’t attack in situations where I must, I decided to learn other sword styles to prepare for such monts.”

I simply conveyed my thoughts honestly to Sara.

Right now, saying it honestly seed best.

“But… how did you learn other sword styles that quickly?”

Sara tilted her head as she asked.

“What do you an by that?”

“You learned my swordsmanship, Lisa’s swordsmanship, and Instructor Luke’s swordsmanship in less than two months. And Jason’s… well, Jason’s wasn’t exactly swordsmanship but a technique using the Spirit of Wind, but still—you saw it once and copied it within a few hours.”

“That… is true.”

“…It seems you have incredible, genius-level talent in that area.”

Incredible, genius-level talent.

I mulled over those words before speaking again.

“I do have talent. But I don’t think it’s an incredible, genius-level talent.”

“…What’s the reason?”

“No matter how much I imitate soone else’s swordsmanship, I can’t even reach thirty percent of the completion that yours, Lisa’s, Instructor Luke’s, or Jason’s swordsmanships have.”

If I could copy others’ sword styles that easily, it was probably thanks to Sword Copy granted by the Basic Swordsmanship Mastery.

That skill might be the reason.

And if my guess were right, no matter how much I copied others’ sword styles, I would never escape being an inferior version of the original.

‘And I actually felt that.’

Over the two months I practiced other sword styles, I felt it instinctively.

No matter how hard I trained or how much ti I invested, I couldn’t even reach half—no, even a quarter—of the completion that the originals, or even my own defensive sword style, possessed.

“Still, you must have talent. Being able to follow another person’s swordsmanship after watching it a few tis… I don’t think I could do that.”

“I do have talent, and I also put in a lot of effort in my own way.”

“Yes, I saw you training alone very often. And while you polished those other sword styles, your defense grew even stronger, not weaker.”

Sara nodded with a aningful look in her eyes.

Then she changed the subject.

“You said you were from Serenus?”

“Yes. My family was in charge of managing the Protected Zone for Other Races.”

“Could you tell

about that place?”

“I can tell you as much as you want. There’s not much, actually.”

And so I told Sara about Serenus—a place this body had never once been to.

I talked about it based mostly on what I’d seen in the ga…

“Sara! Gideon! You were here first?”

Before long, Layla appeared with Jason, waving energetically.

A few minutes later, Lisa also arrived, and the five of us shared a al together for the first ti in a while.

“Huh? Wow! Look over there! What’s that?”

“That is… Fido Armander. A famous Monster Tar of the Empire.”

At Layla’s shout, Gideon answered imdiately.

Where Layla pointed, a man was performing with several monsters.

“I heard he appeared at most of the Empire’s festivals, big and small. Looks like he ca here too.”

“Oooh! Wow, amazing! Huh? T-that monster—what is that? It looks like a lion, but it has fins, and its arms are super long!”

“That’s a Chuo. It’s not a monster that lives in the Empire. It lives on the opposite side of the continent.”

“And that one? That huge spider?”

“That’s an Ananse.”

Since they were monsters often seen in the ga, Gideon answered right away.

Layla looked at him with fascination.

“Gideon! You also know a lot about monsters?”

“I just have a little interest…”

“Perfect! Follow ! Explain things to

while we walk around!”

“Eh? U-uh? L-Layla?”

Layla jumped up, grabbed Gideon’s hand, and pulled him toward the Monster Tar.

Sara also stood up in surprise at the princess’s sudden action, but…

“I’ll go. You two keep eating and rest.”

Lisa quickly stood and pushed Sara back into her seat.

“We were supposed to go on patrol with Gideon soon anyway. Her Highness will be safe with

and Gideon, so stay here with Jason and rest.”

“Ah—yeah. O-okay, Sis.”

“Or… did you also want to go look at those monsters? If you do, then co with us.”

Sara shook her head, looking slightly flustered.

“Ah, no. I’m not really interested in watching monsters perform.”

“Yeah? Jason, what about you?”

“I’m fine too. I’ll just stay here and chat with Sara.”

After hearing Jason’s answer, Lisa headed toward where Layla and Gideon were.

And once she disappeared, Jason spoke up with a grin.

“Lady Layla really likes Gideon, you know. At this rate, if she keeps dragging him around like that, Lisa-nuna might get jealous.”

“Lisa-unni isn’t the type to do that.”

“No, I think she does have quite the possessive side. And Layla-nim… how should I say it? She seems to like Gideon way more than we expected.”

With that, Jason looked toward Gideon.

Gideon was still being dragged around by Layla, his hand firmly held in hers.

Layla simply looked excited, while Gideon only smiled awkwardly.

And Lisa… though she wore her usual expressionless face, it was clear her hand was subtly clenched into a fist.

“If Layla-nim ever tries to steal Gideon away from Lisa-nuna later, what happens then? Who knows, maybe it turns into a civil war between the Imperial Family and House Balmuth?”

“The Princess wouldn’t do that. And keep those delusions inside your head. If you say that out loud and end up getting arrested for insulting royalty, don’t bla .”

“Co on, I wouldn’t get arrested for that.”

“And how would you know? Have you ever been arrested?”

At Sara’s question, Jason only laughed.

“…Heh.”

“…You haven’t… right?”

“I’ll leave that to your imagination.”

Jason chuckled and naturally changed the subject.

“Anyway, earlier—before Layla-nim and I arrived—you were talking with Gideon like it was the most normal thing in the world?”

“Why wouldn’t I talk to him normally?”

“There’s nothing wrong with talking normally. But it’s Gideon. You didn’t really like him before, right? Rember?”

“…My thoughts just changed a little.”

Sara avoided Jason’s gaze and muttered quietly.

Seeing her like that, Jason grinned as if he had discovered sothing amusing.

“How did they change?”

“I decided… to acknowledge him. What I an is… I decided to accept that I lost to him.”

Her face had turned red, as if saying that was humiliating.

“I don’t want to admit defeat, but I realized that accepting what I need to accept is the only way I can grow.”

“Ooh, Sara, you… you’ve finally matured!”

Sara whipped her head toward him and glared.

“What kind of nonsense is that? Are you saying I’ve been immature this whole ti?”

“Haven’t you?”

“If you want

to challenge you to a duel, keep talking. I’ll draw my sword right now—”

“Okay, okay, I’m sorry.”

Jason answered with a laugh, and Sara sighed before continuing.

“Anyway, I don’t plan on looking down on him anymore. Whether he’s a noble or not doesn’t matter. As a fellow swordsman, I’ve decided I’m going to beat him, no matter what.”

“So that’s why you were talking so normally earlier?”

“If I want to win a fight, I have to know my opponent completely. I was gathering information on him.”

“Oh? So? Did you get anything useful?”

“He…”

Sara hesitated briefly, then nodded.

“He had incredible talent and still worked tirelessly. And… I could tell he was a good person.”

“You thought the sa thing I did.”

“It’s only natural. If he’s going to be my rival, of course he needs to have that kind of character—”

“Pfft!”

Jason suddenly burst into laughter, and Sara tilted her head.

“…Why are you laughing?”

“N-No, it’s just—heheh. Rival? Seriously, rival? Hahaha!”

As Jason laughed louder, Sara’s already red face looked like it was about to explode.

“W-What! What’s wrong with that?!”

“It just doesn’t suit you at all! And honestly… do you really think Gideon sees you as his rival? Aren’t you the only one thinking that?”

“That’s…”

“For soone to be rivals, they need to be around the sa level, you know? But you’ve lost to Gideon twice in a row—”

“…S-Shut… shut up… just shut up…”

Sara lowered her head, trembling.

She desperately wanted to make a clever coback, but nothing ca to mind.

So as usual, her hand moved first—grabbing Jason by the collar.

“Grk?!”

“There’s an empty lot over there. Follow . One of us dies today.”

“Huh? W-Wait? Ahahaha… l-let’s calm down… I’ll buy you so delicious strawberry-flavored cotton candy later…”

“Do I look like a kid?!”

Matching the lively mood of the festival, the two of them spent their ti like they always did.

After Jason managed to calm Sara down a bit:

“Anyway, did you hear anything from your family?”

“…No. They don’t contact

often anyway, so it’s nothing strange.”

“For the break… maybe they plan to call you back to talk?”

“Probably. If they’re going to scold

for disgracing the family’s na… they’d summon

directly.”

Sara’s expression darkened rapidly.

Seeing that, Jason let out a dry chuckle and patted her shoulder.

“If they throw you into lava again or sothing, just run away and contact . I’ll help.”

“I’ll… think about it when the ti cos.”

“Yeah. Like you said, that’s sothing to deal with later. So for today—no, for this entire week—let’s just enjoy ourselves.”

Jason smiled as he looked out at the street filled with people.

“But seriously, you’re not going to eat cotton candy? I’m offering to buy it for you.”

“…Can I have two?”

“I’ll buy you three.”

Jason smiled fondly at his long-ti friend.