Translator: Darling | Editor: Walker

The following day,  Iris and Alia met up after school.

After Iris listed out what I said yesterday night, she just returned to her dorm.

Before the lesson started she was conjuring up blades near the trees.

I watched her as she let out a small breath, trying to cut the leaves she couldn’t see.

“Whoo— How was that?”

“Yea, that felt pretty good. Try not to lose your intuition next time.”

“Yes! Whooo—“

As Iris listened to my words she seemed to cheer up quite a lot.

It might be due to her finally taking a break, but I feel like she is finally shedding the doubt that she has in her heart. 

But the more she concentrates, the more she comes in contact with the conflict inside of her.

She swung her blade straight from the beginning, but as of late her slices have become even sharper.

Soon, she might be able to cut multiple leaves with one strike I think.

“I don’t see any problem in your technique either”, said Alia, who was standing next to me with her arms folded and her face all dandy.

Alia was after all able to cut through the falling leaves too.

No matter in what manner I looked at her, she didn’t move like any ordinary person would.

“T-thank you. But all I did was take you here. It must be quite boring to just watch me concentrate…”

“Well, do you want to try a mock battle then?”

“No, that’s fine. We’re still in a training session after all.”

“That’s quite fine. We can have a match if you like.”

“Really?”

“But we already have plenty of matches together…”

“The both of you are quite close in power levels, so even from a learning perspective, it will be quite worthwhile to have a match I think.”

“If you’re going to do it, today would be the right timing.”

“Well, if you put it like that…”

Iris nodded to agree, and both of them started preparing.

As far as I can tell Iris is stronger than Alia.

However, their field of expertise are quite different from each other, so it’s quite hard to say.

Though Iris possesses some real power, she does seem lacking in many places. 

Alia on the other hand does have a refined style.

I managed to understand that during our battle, where she would constantly make the right observations.

So I don’t know whether they will match each other, but they decided to go head to head anyway.

If these who have about the same power fight one another, they’re bound to become stronger.

By fighting the same opponent over and over you will get to know their habits, but you can point them out to the other once you know what they are.

“Whenever you’re ready.”

“Could you become a referee for the match, teach?”

“Ah, yes. Ready, go~”

As I started the match they both started moving at the same time.

While Iris prepared to fight with her rapier-like sword, Alia made herself smaller and came dashing with two short blades in hand.

Alia rushed straight at Iris, aiming to go low.

They both know the other’s movements, but Alia showed no hesitation in her attacks.

“!!”

But Alia’s expression soon changed.

As she got close to Iris, she seemed to have noticed something and moved backward quickly.

Iris was prepared for this and followed her movement, about to strike her where she stood.

In response, Alia swung one of her short blades back at Iris.

Iris moved her body and evaded her strike.

Her response was fast – The first visible attack had many ways to be dealt with… The problem was what followed after the attack.

Alia swung her blade once more without any hesitation. This time she threw it at her blind spot.

“–“

Iris landed on the ground but soon made her way towards Alia again.

She quickly created a blade and used it to deflect the thrown blade.

She didn’t know it was coming, so she shouldn’t have been able to deflect it.

(If what she just did was from what she learned during training then it would make sense… But it doesn’t seem like that’s the case.)

You’d know though, by Alia’s expression.

Unlike her ever so sleepy expression, now she actually showed a lot of emotion on her face.

The fact that Iris defended against it, it surprised her a lot.

Sure, the attack didn’t hit, but she didn’t expect her to do so.

Iris then responded. She let Alia create some distance between them. Is she planning to retrieve the blade that fell to the ground just now?

Iris wouldn’t let her. She quickly made her way towards Alia once more.

Their striking speed didn’t change much, but it seemed Iris did increase her speed slightly.

Still, you’d expect Alia to be striking faster with her corresponding two blades.

Though they both started to lose their strength, Alia lost hers at a faster pace. Their blades clashing created an echoing sound throughout the area.

The victor would quickly come out on top.

Alia lost her balance by Iris’s attack – her defense was just a tad bit late.

Iris stopped her blade just right before she was about to hit Alia’s neck.

I didn’t have to stop them, they themselves knew the match was over.

“My win, huh.”

“Yea, I lost. You became stronger than before, didn’t you, Iris?”

Though she lost, Alia still seems rather happy.

“Pon-Pon” she patted Iris’ face.

“Stop. You’re embarrassing me.”

“You always do this to me, so I wanted to return the favor.”

“Y-ye, that is to get you out of your sleepy mood”, Iris said while she blushes.

She looked at me with an expression that just screamed “IT’S NOTHING LIKE THAT”.

I showed her back that I knew.

“So the match ended. Shall we reflect on what happened and start our training?”

“Yes.”

“Ye~es.”

Iris answered as properly as she could, and Alia responded in a somewhat not being here kind of behavior.

Once again, our lesson begins.