The Gloomy and Timid Princess Heads to the Academy

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The swords clash.

The warriors, with determined expressions, adjust their stances to use all their abilities to overpower their opponent.

A mother of a child and a boy at a prime age for learning might not seem suited for battle, yet they were exuding a murderous intent, aiming for each other’s throats.

Everything was purely for the sake of God.

They brandished their swords, strangers to one another, intent on killing in the name of divine will.

As they exchanged countless blows, fatigue mounted, and yet, with their primal instincts, they sensed the end of this duel was approaching.

The contest, hard to conclude since both were evenly matched, ended when the boy slashed the woman.

Like a marionette with its strings cut, the woman fell to the ground, bleeding.

“Hah… Hah… Look, oh great God! I have won!”

The boy shouted the name of God towards the heavens, celebrating his victory. There was no trace of sorrow or guilt for his fallen opponent.

After all, there was no need for such feelings.

Blood pouring from the fallen woman seemed to rewind as it flowed back into her body.

Her torn skin and muscles knitted back together as if they had never been severed, and her heart, which had stopped, began to beat once more.

The boy, waiting with his head bowed in reverence to the ground, appeared utterly unconcerned with such a sight.

Once the fallen woman steadied herself, she also bowed her head to the ground, as if nothing had happened.

Silence enveloped them as they continued to bow their heads, and soon, footsteps echoed in their ears.

Though the sound was beyond human hearing, for these beastkin, it was easily perceived.

“Lift your heads.”

Upon the woman’s words, they simultaneously lifted their heads, looking at her with awe.

Tears of joy streamed down their faces as they awaited her words.

“You have endured hardship for a whole week, training in far-off lands. As a reward for your efforts, I shall grant you the opportunity to join the guard.”

“Ahh… Thank you! Thank you, Byeolbi!”

As Byeolbi gestured, a rift opened behind them.

“Then go, return to your families. Children, they must be waiting for you.”

“Thank you for choosing us…! Truly, thank you!”

As Byeolbi watched her people support her until the very end as she disappeared, she thought.

The baseline had improved.

Despite choosing two beings unfit for battle, she was pleased to see such results achieved in just a week.

Though the high points had been achieved a thousand years ago, it was difficult for her to enhance the low points without her true form discovering it.

While having such thoughts, she observed her fledgling disciple’s accomplishments in the continent through a child’s eyes and considered that it too had made progress in its own way.

With the magic she had expelled, it had become weak enough for humans to use. And civilizations arose, applying it.

A singular fragment created a shroud that even an omnipotent observer could not gaze within without a medium.

She mused that they had truly created something intriguing.

She looked up to the sky, gazing at her true form observing this star from the outer asteroid belt of the solar system.

Present humanity could not deliver answers to that.

More than the future where they would accumulate knowledge to cross the sea of stars and encounter it, there were far more futures where they would enter down the path of destruction due to their free will.

Over resources. Due to differing ideologies. Abandoning the crossing of the star sea, uploading everything into a virtual world, living in a tiny paradise until their power ran dry and perishing, and so forth.

Byeolbi only pondered, reading the world reflected in her child’s eyes and her daughter’s thoughts.

—

“I think the red-haired one will win.”

“Oh, have you lost your mind after consecutive defeats? It’s obvious the blue-haired one will win.”

In terms of skill and the mana surrounding them, the blue-haired one had a clear advantage.

The only reason the red-haired one could stand was that the blue-haired one was clearly allowing it.

Yet, Dokan seemed sincerely faithful to the upset.

“You’ll see. One can get bitten hard if they become careless.”

“Let’s wait and see. Your bizarre predictions can sometimes be right.”

However, as those upsets gradually occurred, the point difference with Dokan remained constant at one.

Dokan had just surged ahead by two points, but since my prediction had come right three times, I was now one point ahead.

“…Ha!”

“Gah!”

“…No, don’t lie. You got cut by that clumsy blade?”

I could see mana enveloping him; how did he get through that?

“I said, let’s wait and see. I knew you’d do that with the mana whirlpool you kept using.”

It was so satisfying to see him smirk at me that I couldn’t help but punch him, but it didn’t change that the guy I bet on lost.

Just finish it already instead of dragging it out…!

“Redmond wins. Blue Tark, you were too arrogant. You had dozens of opportunities to finish it.”

“I just got carried away…”

Oh, you rotten scoundrel. I could only watch as Dokan feigned indifference while hiding his crumbling inner feelings.

“Next, Cecilia. And Han Dogon. Step forward.”

Before I knew it, it was his turn.

Seeing him getting entangled with the new girl today, it really seemed like he had a magnet for women, being the protagonist of a harem story or something.

“…I bet on you.”

It could be considered a loyalty bet, but I genuinely believed Dokan would win.

Besides, if he lost, he could just claim it was rigged, so there was no reason not to bet.

“I think… Cecilia will win.”

Clueless bastard. At times like this, he should have followed my lead and confidently bet on himself.

“Hmph. Then go.”

If he lost by one point, he would yell rigged. In that case, no matter how committed he was to the match, he wouldn’t have any way out.

Sitting there while seeing Dokan off, I was somewhat looking forward to watching how he fought.

I didn’t know a lick of magic, so I could ask God to work up something similar… It just so happened that the state that God was in right now was far from ideal, so I couldn’t call upon him recklessly.

In every regard, without Dokan, this continent would have been uninteresting.

While having such thoughts, I stared at the arena, and soon the fighters entered.

Dokan held only a sword in one hand, while Cecilia had something floating behind her.

Among those, one particularly large object radiated an intensely divine aura.

If it was a spirit that had been cut from God…

Head, perhaps.

That chilling thought sent shivers down my spine, but soon my gaze met that large mass.

It looked like two empty holes instead of eyes, yet I felt it was staring right at me.

“What’s wrong, Anima? Are you perhaps worried about something?”

Cecilia seemed to be concerned about that thing, speaking to it.

…Can it even talk? But I couldn’t hear it at all.

“I’m Han Dogon. You probably already know… let’s do our best.”

“…Ah, I’m Cecilia! Sorry, I was a bit distracted…”

“That can happen.”

Seeing Dokan acting like he was working on another woman while I wasn’t there doubled my irritation. Just lose already.

…No, if he lost, I would lose points. Not that I could cheer him on to win, either…

Sigh. It’s so complicated.

The match began, regardless of such things. As soon as it started, Dokan rushed at Cecilia, but the earth rose to block his path.

His mana-wrapped sword could easily slice through the dirt mound, but he had no choice but to avoid the incoming ice spear that was flying straight at him.

“Freeze…!”

Though he tried to neutralize the incoming ice spears with fireballs, he was overwhelmingly outnumbered.

For every one he countered, three more came, so he must have thought there was no answer to the endless rain of ice spears, creating a smokescreen with magic to obstruct her view.

“Such shallow trickery!”

Regardless, she conjured winds to blow away the smoke, but no one was there.

However, spectators watching from afar couldn’t help but chuckle.

In that brief moment, Dokan focused all his mana onto his legs, leapt up, and was about to come crashing down.

Instead of splitting her in half with the sword as expected, he simply landed lightly behind her and pointed his blade at her throat.

“I think I’m the winner now.”

“…I surrender.”

For a match featuring flashy magic, it was an anticlimactic ending, but since Dokan won, that was all that mattered.

I scored points and felt good.

“Han Dogon wins. A predictable but not bad strategy, young Dokan. Lady Cecilia pushed excellently as well. Both of you did well. Return to your seats.”

I couldn’t restrain myself as Dokan wobbled back to his seat.

“I was right this time. I knew you’d win.”

“I got lucky. If she had paid a bit more attention, I would have become a pincushion in the air.”

“But you didn’t.”

Winning was all that mattered. However, the mana felt extraordinarily bizarre indeed.

It was undoubtedly divine power. The divine power would typically repel against God, so how could it be that these two inherently hostile forces were linked?

My suspicions about this continent continued to grow.