"That man is suspicious."
Sunday morning, in Class 11's training room.
While thinking it had been a while since all four of them gathered, Ban Yu-won was reporting about his trip to Ronica with Ketra yesterday when.
Luciel approached until their bodies were almost touching and sniffed his neckline while speaking.
"I heard that men who like men usually talk about women to lower others' guards, then they pounce when they see an opportunity."
"I'm more concerned about where you got that knowledge from, Luciel. And that senior is definitely straight, so don't worry."
Ketra is, without a doubt, genuinely interested in women.
Doesn't Luciel realize it would be more disrespectful to him to make such assumptions?
No, he's probably not paying attention to anything else because he's so focused on protecting Ban Yu-won from others...
While thinking this, Luciel, who didn't like how Ban Yu-won had picked up too many other people's scents, started rubbing his body against his chest."Huh...?!"
"I'm sorry, Yu-won. Ah, but this is all for your sake...!"
"Luciel, that's enough. You're being rude to Ban!"
Light shouted angrily in place of Ban Yu-won, who wasn't getting angry.
But honestly, Ban Yu-won didn't think it was particularly rude.
Nice smell. Nice touch. Satisfying weight.
Without any exaggeration, it felt like heaven.
"Dokgo-yeon, you used to stop this kind of thing. Do something."
"...Well, maybe we should let them be. Their relationship is for them to figure out."
"Dokgo-yeon?!"
Light's shock was proportional to how much he had trusted Dokgo-yeon.
But Luciel let out a small laugh as if he had expected this, and continued to mark Ban Yu-won with his scent.
This guy Luciel must have had something happen with Dokgo-yeon.
Since he had been feeling the need to come to some sort of conclusion about his relationship with Luciel anyway, he accepted Luciel's bold skinship without rejection.
How long had it been like this?
"Are you satisfied now, Luciel?"
"Uh, yes... thank you."
Perhaps Luciel had thought Ban Yu-won would push him away midway through, as he had been struggling to find the right timing to pull away, but when Ban Yu-won spoke to him, he finally stepped back with an embarrassed smile.
"Ban Yu-won, did something happen yesterday?"
Dokgo-yeon, who had been observing Ban Yu-won's notably more mature response, stared at him directly and asked.
Yesterday, huh.
Ban Yu-won gave a bitter smile as he recalled yesterday evening's encounter, which had been explosive in many ways.
"Yeah. I witnessed the endpoint of a rather unfortunate love."
"Endpoint."
"...To be precise, I should say it's inevitable. I'll tell you the details later."
"It must be related to the commotion in the cafeteria the day before yesterday."
"This is why I hate perceptive ones."
"Heh."
At his provocative comment, Dokgo-yeon let out a small laugh and moved to the center of the training room while drawing the dark short sword from her waist.
"Come at me. You've become too arrogant, so I need to instill some manners back into that body of yours."
"Yu-won, let me go first..."
"No. I'll do it."
Ban Yu-won also stepped forward, gripping the executioner's longsword, and faced off against her.
As he instantly focused on his opponent before him and raised his fighting spirit without the help of talismans, Dokgo-yeon tested him with her words.
"You've been working on something lately, haven't you? Won't you need to take it out?"
"It's not only incomplete, but it's also not a weapon that would work on a strong opponent like you."
"I won't go easy on you even if I praise you, you know?"
"If you were the type to let your guard down from a little praise, I wouldn't have stopped at just this much flattery."
Dokgo-yeon showed a faint smile as she held her short sword forward.
In the next moment, as they both leaped forward as if folding the ground beneath them, their sword blades crossed with a clear sound!
—Chiiiing!
"You've completely mastered Flow. How about Counter?"
"Find out yourself."
—Chang! Chaeng!
In a brief moment, the sword blades of Ban Yu-won and Dokgo-yeon clashed and separated several times.
Dokgo-yeon's eyes widened as she felt her hand holding the short sword trembling from the impact of the collision.
'His counter-elasticity has gotten much stronger... He's accurately targeting weak points and deflecting my power. Did he gain some kind of enlightenment in such a short time?'
In reality, it would be more accurate to say that while accumulating experience in 'returning something' through language magic, he had also mastered the concept of Counter in martial arts.
If there was one major gain Ban Yu-won had made while assisting the student council as a language magician these past few days, it was realizing that there wasn't much difference between the concepts he handled in language magic and the concepts he had mastered within his body.
—Chaeeng, Chang! Kagagak!
As internal concepts grow stronger, the diversity of language magic expands, and as one dedicates themselves to language magic, they can observe the diverse growth of internal concepts.
Since everything originated from his authority, there was no need to think about them separately.
Now that he had realized this, his development as an ability user would be greatly accelerated.
"Hmm, you've been busy running around, but it seems you've gained something worthwhile. Then let's go a bit harder!"
"What?!"
—Skagagagak!
Dokgo-yeon, who had long since recognized his brilliant talent, realized he had begun to bloom and raised her fighting spirit with satisfaction.
Black lines drawn chaotically in the air.
No, more like black planes.
All of them were death itself.
"Even Freeza can only evolve three times, but how many stages do you have?!"
"Not bad!"
It was no exaggeration - Ban Yu-won was genuinely startled and moved his feet as he felt her movements suddenly become more than 30% faster.
Having gained the basics of footwork while learning the Ghost Shadow Art, he could move quite skillfully even when converting it for combat use.
"But you're still rough around the edges, look at my sword properly! Just deflecting and dodging won't let you fully penetrate the flow of ki!"
"Uaaaaaah!"
[Swordsmanship depth has reached 108. Pierce depth has reached 53, Cut depth has reached 60, Flow depth has reached 75, and Counter depth has reached 63. Based on Mysterious Body Technique, combining sword-related movements into a single flow.]
[Physical Body depth stimulated by Mysterious Qi decreases to 181. You feel your body developing beyond the limits of concepts.]
[Some negative concepts within the body have been eliminated through Mysterious Body Technique training. A positive surplus of Life is generated. The surplus potential will promote the growth of other concepts.]
[Mysterious Body Technique depth has reached 111, Mysterious Qi depth has reached 292.]
[Life depth has reached 455.]
Why is it that no matter how much he grows, sparring with Dokgo-yeon always ends with him falling in the same way?
Ban Yu-won collapsed there, harboring a mystery in his mind that wouldn't be solved at least within this century.
Dokgo-yeon approached him and showed a faint smile while looking down at him.
"Whew, that was really good. At the very least, you won't lose in technique when fighting other students."
This was exceptionally high praise coming from Dokgo-yeon, who rarely gave compliments.
...Though lately, even that seems uncertain.
However, Ban Yu-won wasn't in a particularly bad mood as he had realized through their fierce battle that his swordsmanship, which had relied on several individual concepts, was beginning to develop a solid flow.
"It's hard to believe you've honed your skills to this level after properly holding a sword for just over a month... Ahem! You should be fine for the sparring schedule starting tomorrow."
"I'll take revenge for you, Yu-won!"
"Sorry Luciel, but I can already imagine what will happen in a few minutes just from hearing that..."
Sure enough, Luciel, who had stepped forward imposingly with half his hair turned black, collapsed beside Ban Yu-won in less than 5 minutes.
Light lasted 3 minutes, so this was much better.
"You just insulted me, didn't you!"
"Yeah, something like that."
*
After spending the weekend intensely focused on studying and sparring while burning through Ban Yu-won's special talismans, Monday finally dawned.
While last week was dedicated to handling an enormous amount of assignments directly tied to exam scores and preparing for tests,
This week was the main exam period, featuring many practical assessments including comprehensive evaluation sparring that would count toward first-year overall grades, as well as written exams.
In other words, they had already reached week 6 at the Academy.
"To be honest, it feels like I've already spent half a year with you all. Maybe because we've gotten so used to each other."
"W-what? Saying stuff like that doesn't make me happy at all!"
Light twisted his whole body in response to Ban Yu-won's words, his body language honestly showing joy despite his verbal denial.
Fortunately, since he hadn't had any holy sword-related seizures until yesterday, if things continued this way, he should be able to achieve decent scores in this regular assessment.
Though he would never say it in front of Light, Ban Yu-won had already heard Dokgo-yeon definitively state that 'Light's martial arts talent is certainly at genius level.'
"We'll be spending much more time together from now on, Yu-won. Ah~."
Meanwhile, Luciel, looking quite composed, smiled like a holy mother while using her fork to pick up a sausage and move it toward Ban Yu-won's mouth.
The moment he accepted and ate it without refusing, Ban Yu-won felt all eyes in the student cafeteria turn toward them.
As expected, Luciel's popularity was steadily rising.
Once you remove the colored lens of her special admission status, she's simply an angelic beauty, so it's natural that her fame grows as Rebellion becomes more well-known.
"Well... I don't know about Light, but the Beast has stabilized quite well now, so unless something unusual happens, we should be together at least until graduation."
"Please stop with those ominous expressions."
Dokgo-yeon also spoke in a calm voice while playing with her chopsticks.
Today's meal was a typical American brunch style with scrambled eggs, sausage, bacon, and toast, and seeing her calmly eating it despite generally not being fond of Western food showed how well she had adapted to the Academy.
...Though her unchanged stubbornness could be glimpsed in the fact that she was using chopsticks instead of a fork.
"Sigh, the insect's stare is piercing. I wonder if he still hasn't learned his lesson even after going through all that."
"Huh? Ah..."
Ban Yu-won gave a bitter smile at Dokgo-yeon's words during their meal.
The insect she referred to was none other than Lucein Ortima.
He had reportedly returned last weekend, and now sitting in the center of the cafeteria with his royal guard, somehow both his eyes and arm had been completely restored to normal.
This was quite different from Erecto, who had become half cyborg after losing an arm just like him.
Of course, that guy had deliberately accepted machinery into his body to become stronger...
"But he's only watching from afar and not approaching, right?"
"That sounded like a line of poetry, Yu-won."
"Our kids are getting too sharp these days..."
"Huu."
Dokgo-yeon sighed.
"I wonder how long that bug plans to continue this pathetic act."
"Dokgo-yeon, I've thought of a good idea."
"I don't think it's going to be good at all."
Luciel spoke with sparkling eyes, while Dokgo-yeon responded with visible distaste.
As Ban Yu-won was drinking water, thinking about how he couldn't quite figure out the power balance between these two lately, an unexpected shot came his way.
"Why don't you try showing skinship to Yu-won like I do? You could instantly know what feelings that trash has for you. Like, feeding him food."
"?!"
Ban Yu-won was shocked at the unbelievable suggestion.
Besides that, so even Luciel calls Ortima trash.
Of course, Dokgo-yeon snorted.
"I refuse. Why would I participate in such a cheap act."
"Are you running away?"
"I'm saying it's meaningless."
"If it's meaningless, then all the more reason to try it once. It's not like you'll lose anything."
Luciel wouldn't back down, while Dokgo-yeon wore an annoyed expression.
As Ban Yu-won prepared to flee from her who might explode at any moment, Dokgo-yeon suddenly let out a deep sigh and turned her gaze to him.
"Would you dislike it?"
"Why would I dislike it? It would be an honor, actually."
Luciel burst into laughter at his reflexively honest response.
"I love how honest Yu-won is."
"...Hah, fine. I'll play along."
Did she just agree?
Ban Yu-won couldn't believe his ears.
But Dokgo-yeon, with a stoic expression, skillfully gathered some scrambled eggs with her spoon following Luciel's suggestion, and actually held it out toward Ban Yu-won's mouth!
"Dokgo-yeon, you...?"
"Quickly open your mouth. Put this in, and quickly close it."
"Speaking so simply like you're explaining how to put an elephant in a refrigerator..."
"You're missing something, Dokgo-yeon. You need to say 'ah~'"
Luciel, stop!
Dokgo-yeon's mental life is already at zero!
Though Ban Yu-won trembled, certain that this time Dokgo-yeon would explode.
The result was surprising.
"Ugh... ah, ah~."
"Ah~?!"
The scene was so shocking that Ban Yu-won temporarily lost consciousness.
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