5. Preparing for a duel – 10

“As I said before, the duel evaluation will be conducted in a month from now. As you all know, you must be well aware of the fact that you have to prepare diligently as the duel evaluation is the most important evaluation in this semester, right?”

At closing time after all classes were over, Class A’s homeroom teacher, Ethan Raven, said that with a solemn tone.

But even without his warning, there was no one in this class who didn’t know how big the duel evaluation had on their grades.

“Haa, I’m having trouble deciding who to pick for the duel this time. Even if I lose this time, shall I nominate someone stronger than me to the duel?”

“Then, after being beaten, where did you secretly cry out loud?”

“What?”

When the teacher made such a request to the students and went out, the classroom immediately turned into a commotion.

The students all gathered in groups of twos and threes and started talking about the upcoming duel evaluation.

However, even in the midst of the hustle and bustle, there was a woman humming a song with a calm face as if she had nothing to do with it.

“Huh, uhh-”

Her identity is none other than Claire Delphine Mascarena.

After the ‘incident’ that occurred on the day of the monster practice training, he was also a being that was receiving glare from the learning members as he stuck with a guy who had no roots called Jin.

Of course, Claire herself didn’t pay the slightest attention to such stares.

No, in fact, the correct answer is that there was no time to care about such gazes.

Because right now, her mind was filled with what to make of the side dishes for the lunchbox to be given to Jin tonight, not the glares of others or the evaluation of the upcoming duel.

“Whoops.”

Claire looked at the lunch she had prepared for her the day before and complained all over the place, saying it was grass, but she still smiled involuntarily at the thought of him eating everything.

jin.

Judging by the fact that he has no last name, he is a man of humble origins, demeaning behavior, and always full of cheap words or complaints coming out of his mouth.

… But at the same time, a man who is immature and hides a seriousness and consideration that is hard to find in his younger classmates.

On the surface, he was such a rude and baseless man that her classmates were reluctant to get close to him, but Claire realized that his attitude was similar to a kind of defense mechanism to protect herself.

I tried not to get along with others as much as possible by pushing others away and treating them harshly, but I used to see a contradiction in not actively pushing away people who approached me.

What the hell happened in the past? What kind of past have you been through, and what experiences have you had that make you so afraid of giving affection to others?

In Claire’s eyes, the way he tickled and distanced himself from others was just pitiful.

And if I could, I wanted to hug him and caress him. The gap between his strong exterior and his fragile inner self was making Claire unbearable.

In that sense, I felt a little bit glad that Jin was lying in the hospital room because Claire had a major accident during the monster practice the other day.

Because if the accident hadn’t happened, and if Jean hadn’t been lying in the hospital room and Claire hadn’t nursed him, she wouldn’t have learned so much about the man named Jean, and wouldn’t have felt these feelings now.

‘jin.’

Thinking about it makes me smile involuntarily.

Come to think of it, I served him scrambled eggs yesterday and he really liked it. Then, what food would he like to serve today?

Shall we make food with eggs like yesterday? Or should I cook a mushroom dish that I didn’t show on the outside, but which was quite delicious the other day?

Oh, yesterday I went to the market to find ingredients, and mackerel was sold at a slightly cheaper price. Then, shall we make fish dishes today?

I’m not sure if Jin himself was conscious of it, but he had an undesirable eating habit of eating only meat and not eating vegetables well.

Even if there is nothing wrong in the short term, it is clear that such eating habits will adversely affect health in the long term.

If so, you should step in and take care of him and take care of him. No, she is the only one who can take care of his health.

For Claire, going to the market every day to buy ingredients and making her own lunches was not a hassle at all.

No, it was rather pleasant. The fact that by getting close to him like this, there is one more thing I can do for him who was hurt because of me that day.

It was just then that she hurriedly moved to the market to buy even a little fresh fish.

“Hey, Hugo. Who are you going to name in this duel evaluation?”

“Duel evaluation? If that’s the case, there’s already one perfect opponent.”

Hugo Bright.

The eldest son of Viscount Bright in the southern part of the Empire, and at the same time a man with a reputation as a martial artist in Nineveh.

And at the same time, he is a scum with a sense of vanity who is firmly united with a sense of choosing the nobility and does not like the commoners just because he does not like them.

… And, probably because of what happened on Jin’s first day at Nineveh, he’s a son of a bitch who spreads bad rumors about him all over Nineveh.

“A good opponent? who?”

“You have that kid. That worm-like child of the lowly with only a living mouth.”

Hugo smiled and stared at the desk in the corner of the now empty classroom.

“I’m going to single out that bastard and kill half of it during the evaluation of this duel. That bastard is also taking a few classes related to martial arts, so it won’t be too difficult for a showdown to take place.”

The male student who was talking to Hugo at Hugo’s words looks at him with a slightly uneasy look.

“But will you be okay? People say he might be hiding something.”

Aristocrats are often born with supernatural abilities, so even if they lack the ability, they can easily enter Nineveh.

No matter how hard it was to enter the school, it would be meaningless if mere commoners could not afford the astronomical tuition of Nineveh, so if they did not stand out among them, it would be meaningless.

“What are you hiding?”

However, at the male student’s words, Hugo just ate and burst into laughter.

“Do you remember what happened during the last monster practice?”

At Hugo’s words, Claire involuntarily flinched.

“Oh, I almost lost track of it at that time, but of course I remember. But why?”

“You have that commoner bastard. Do you know why I was seriously injured and was lying in the hospital room for over a week?”

At Hugo’s words, the male student glanced at Claire, who was next to them, and then answered in a whisper.

“The teachers said that at that time, he was the only one injured because he was too close to the great magic.”

“No, actually, it didn’t break like that because I was swept away by that bastard’s magic.”

Hugo laughed and began to whisper as if he were conveying a secret to a male student, but loud enough for everyone in the class to understand.

“At that time, the other kids didn’t seem to see it because they were swept away by magic or lost their minds, but I saw it clearly. How did that bastard come to be so seriously injured?”

“Then why?”

“The situation at the time was such a mess that I only saw it vaguely, but that bastard was actually beaten to death by the monster that was there at the time. I saw with my own eyes the sight of that worm-like creature confronting some large monster, so there is no doubt about it.”

During practice, the monsters the students had to deal with were none other than orcs.

It’s ferocious, agile, and strong, but it’s a monster that can be easily hunted by students attending Nineveh.

And the lowly, lowly citizen called Jin was nothing but the orc and burst. And that too, with so much serious injuries that he had to lie down in the intensive care unit for a week.

‘Sick.’

After all, that bastard was actually nothing short of a cheater.

He used some dirty trick just to hide his weakness, and Hugo foolishly fell for it and mistakenly thought he was a strong man hiding some kind of power.

However, the level of the cheonmin did not get out of the level of the lowly as expected.

Considering that he was only seriously injured by an orc or something, his skills must be really mediocre.

If so, it wouldn’t be too difficult to win against that nerd in the soon-to-be dueling evaluation. No, it would be as easy as flipping the palm of your hand.

The key to the duel that day is just how overwhelmingly you can crush that bug.

“I cripple that bastard that day. I need to lift a spoonful, so don’t touch my hand, should I break my ankle? I live without at least one leg, so it won’t be too much of a problem, right?”

Watching Hugo giggle and say such things, Claire felt something cool inside of her.

“…..”

The reason is… I don’t know. No, no reason was needed. I just felt bad.

It was unpleasant. That giggling voice is so annoying.

And I was annoyed. How dare I say that I have the right to do this and that over him?

Hugo was annoyed by the foul language pouring out of his mouth, and even more annoyed by the other students who seemed to quietly agree with him.

what did you just say? Breaking his ankle? Are you going to cripple him?

Claire’s eyes darken. Unable to stay still after hearing such words, Claire moved towards Hugo-

“I don’t know what you’re trying to do, but stop.”

“… Kaya.”

Just in time, a hand stopped her and she stopped walking.

“Why are you blocking it?”

“Are you asking because you don’t know? Do you know what kind of expression you were making right now?”

What was my expression like? I just… I was just trying to say something to that rude person who was spitting out things that shouldn’t be said to a classmate.

“… Yes, I guess I was unaware of it myself.”

Saying that, Erekaya let out a sigh, and seeing her like that, Claire felt slightly worse.

To Claire, Erekaya has been a friend they’ve known for a very long time… At this moment, for some reason, she felt a little displeased.

“Don’t dry it. I guess I should at least say something to him.”

“So calm down. In a situation like this, nothing will change if you, a third party, step forward.”

“… What?”

nothing changes? Why? I, I just wanted to correct him for being treated this unreasonably.

“There are problems that other people can come forward to solve, and there are problems that you must solve yourself. And this is obviously the latter. In a situation like this, nothing can be solved without you stepping out. No, it will only make things worse.”

Erekaya is very calm and continues to speak calmly.

And Claire couldn’t understand what Erekaya looked like.

How can you be so calm? How can you keep talking like that?

Why do they look so casual when their ‘friend’ is being insulted for no reason-

“If not, do you not believe the man? Do you think that man is someone who can’t do anything without your help?”

“Oh, that can’t be!”

“Then don’t think about causing trouble and stay calm. That man is not weak enough for you to take the lead in protecting, much less incompetent.”

Faced with Erekaya, who said that without hesitation, Claire bit her own lips.

“Then what if Jin really, really gets hurt by him? What if you have any problems? You know very well. Hugo is pretty strong. At least among the first years, there are very few people who can deal with him.”

That’s why I couldn’t help but worry. By any chance, what if Jin was really harmed by Hugo in the duel evaluation? What if he is really crippled? What if you get hurt that can’t be repaired?

“It can’t be. Because he is quite strong.”

No matter how much she thought about it, Erekaya couldn’t come to the conclusion that Jin was likely to lose to something like Hugo.

According to Erekaya, Jin is a strong player far above her. Even Erekaya can defeat Hugo with one hand, but it is impossible for Jin to be attacked by such a bug.

“But, even so, there are what ifs!”

“if?”

if, if There’s no way Jin will ever lose to a guy like Hugo, but if Jin really loses to Hugo and causes him any trouble-

“… I will throw it away.”

“… What?”

“I’ll promise. If that happens, I will never stand still. Because, because he-”

Perhaps, because it might be Erekaya’s one and only family.

It might be the man who is closer to her than anyone else in the world.

Pendragon never forsakes their family. And, no matter what, protect your family.

Whatever happens, definitely.