Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance

Volume 3, Chapter 6 - Security of Academy Town

Part 1

Members of The Knights formed units of two-men-cells or three-men-cells depending on their abilities.

For the time being, Kamito, the newcomer, had formed a unit with Ellis, the Captain.

Although, rather than Kamito being a newcomer, this was because not a single girl wanted to form a unit with Kamito.

The Knights\' work covered a lot of areas, more than Kamito had anticipated.

There was the mediation of duels of academy students, the exposing of traders smuggling sealed spirits, the safeguarding of spirits gone astray, the negotiations between student organizations, the rescuing of stranded people— The most frequent quest was the subjugation of beasts and rampaging spirits that passed through naturally occurring Gates in the Spirit Forest and came intruding from Astral Zero. Receiving a report that a large beast seemed to be rampaging outside the town this time as well, the two of them moved quickly to the scene.

Mowing down the trees of the forest, a large beast, wearing a gigantic shell, roared.

It was a beast like a spider cross-bred with a gigantic tortoise.

"What a pretty large prey, how big was the Gate that opened?"

"According to the Spirit Investigation Association\'s announcement, the size of the Gates appearing in the Spirit Forest seem to be getting bigger yearly. The reasons seem to be unknown."

Ellis nodded with a serious expression, and armed her elemental waffe Ray Hawk.

It was his first time fighting side by side with Ellis like this but he knew her real ability.

Claire was more skilled in terms of her sense in flexible tactics, but in contrast with her, who would be moody and erratic, Ellis could fight in a steady way. With just the basics and without playing with shortcuts or tricks, she would force one to yield directly from the front. It was indeed an Ellis-like battle style.

"Now, Kamito!"

Matching up with Ellis attacking from the sky, Kamito plunged close towards the beast.

The shell creature\'s vital point was its soft abdomen. That\'s the same even for a beast.

Kamito kicked the ground with the elemental waffe sword in his hand.

At that moment, the beast\'s abdomen split vertically.

Appearing from its stomach was the head of a giant snake. Widely opening its mouth with sharp fangs, it swooped down at Kamito. The snake wriggling on the ground rolled up a large amount of sand and dirt.

"...What an absurd living thing, this beast is."

As Kamito dodged the beast\'s violent attack, he clicked his tongue.

Clad in the divine protection of her wind spirit and flying up in midair, Ellis released the blades of wind.

However, as if some magic effect was running— the blades were repelled by its hard shell.

*Don*. Ellis landed next to Kamito.

"What a nuisance, that shell seems to be strengthened by spirit magic of the resistance attribute."

"Spirit magic? Who on earth—"

"There is the possibility that this beast didn\'t come from a naturally occurring Gate and was summoned by somebody. In addition to the chaotic Valentia Holy Festival, they caused a disturbance outside of Academy Town and are probably trying to distract the Knights\' attention."

Hearing this, Kamito got it.

"It\'s the Cursed Armament Seal smugglers who had infiltrated into Academy Town, right?"

"There\'s the possibility."

Ellis nodded with a stern expression.

The beast mowed down the trees of the forest and roared like it went mad.

With Ray Hawk in her hand, Ellis took a stance for an attack.

"Kamito, we\'ll do a coordinated attack. Let\'s bring it down in the next attack."

"Ah, I got it."

The striking-like attack of the beast came.

Ellis recited the flying spirit magic at high speed, grabbed Kamito\'s arm and flew up.

Upon flying up right above the beast, she quickly released her hand holding Kamito.

"Let\'s go Est!"

Responding to Kamito\'s shout, the elemental waffe —Terminus Est— shone dazzlingly.

It was a nose dive attack from the sky. A technique that was Ellis\' specialty.

Along with the force of falling, the silver sword pierced into the shell.

*Crack*— A dry sound was heard, and a crack had opened, traversing across the beast\'s hard shell.

Immediately after.

"Haaaaa!"

Ellis, who continued on and nosed dived, aimed at the crack that had appeared on its shell and thrust in her Ray Hawk!

"—Go and rampage, evil winds!"

At the moment she shouted the words of releasing.

The large frame of the beast greatly sprung up in a jolt, and it let out a roar of agony upon its imminent death and became silent.

The violent winds raging inside its body had sliced and ripped its internal organs into pieces.

"For our first time, it was a coordination of precise timing."

Kamito pulled out Est, that was pierced into the shell, as he said that.

"Ahh, I may have a good compatibility with you... th-this is only as far as battles are concerned!"

Ellis swiftly turned red and turned away abruptly.

Part 2

Even after the extermination of the beast in the Spirit Forest, the two of them were led around by incidents unexpectedly happening one by one.

Since there were many students out in town, due to the academy lectures being cancelled, trouble wouldn\'t seem to cease more than usual.

The part, where the number of Knights members decreased due to the headhunting this morning, also spurred on the business.

Time flew by while they were settling the unexpected incidents, and soon it was afternoon.

The Valentia Holy Festival began from the afternoon onwards.

As the mayor\'s speech seemed to be on the plaza\'s side, the townspeople\'s feet had been naturally going towards that direction.

"How dreadful, the Knights\' work is."

As Kamito surveyed the state of the street springing with excitement in the preparation of the festival, he muttered.

"Still , it was special this morning. Besides, the part where the upperclassmen knights were headhunted, hurt. I\'ve caused trouble for you right from your first day, I\'m sorry."

Ellis dropped her shoulders, feeling dejected, and sighed.

She seemed to be depressed because of this morning\'s incident.

"Ellis, it\'s not that that was your fault, you know?"

"No, the fact that I couldn\'t restrain them is my responsibility."

Ellis slowly shook her head.

"Those four upperclassmen were Knights members from the time when my esteemed sister was the captain. Most of the upperclassmen had resigned the moment I was selected to be the captain. Only they had remained so far, but— they ran out of patience with me, who lacks the ability as the captain."

"Ellis..."

"That reminds me, it was just a few weeks ago when you came here."

Ellis gave a talk about the Sylphid Knights from a year ago to Kamito.

The Sylphid Knights, when Velsaria was the captain, operated with iron rules and seemed to be an even-stronger organization as compared to now. They had the perfect efficient doctrine. The people, who violated even the group\'s rules, were punished right on the spot, and the academy students, who caused problems, were mercilessly beaten up with the armed power of the Knights.

Naturally, the academy rules seemed to have been kept well.

However, Velsaria\'s severe methods invited opposition from the academy students, who were highly-prideful noble girls, and before long, she had to step down from her position as captain.

Although she was the eldest daughter of the prestigious Fahrengart Duke Family, it might, after all, be the fact that she was no more than an adopted child of a lower class noble, or probably the cause of stirring animosity with the nobles, who honored their pedigree.

The one, who was elected to be that girl\'s successor, was Ellis of the same Fahrengart Family.

"In the past, my esteemed sister was a splendid knight, whom I admired."

Ellis strongly bit her lips.

"She was a strict cold person, but she wasn\'t a person who would crush everything with power that way. Her current self is no longer the knight I aim to be."

Kamito remembered the spirit crystal he saw in Ellis\' room yesterday.

The Velsaria in Ellis\' memory had a completely different atmosphere as hers from this morning.

He felt it when he confronted her, that intimidating air that\'s even ominous.

(What on earth changed her like that?—)

Then, at that moment.

*Gyururu*.

There was the rumbling sound of a stomach..

"Ellis?"

"I-It isn\'t me!?"

Ellis turned bright red and denied.

Kamito made a wry smile.

"It\'s because we\'ve been working since morning. The truth is that I\'m also starving. Since it\'s almost time to change shifts, shall we have lunch or something?"

"Gu... E-Even though I\'m saying that\'s not it."

Ignoring Ellis, who puffed out her cheeks, Kamito looked around his surroundings.

As there was the Valentia Holy Festival, there were many confection stores, but there were also plenty of street stalls selling other food. There was fried bread covered with sugar, a certain cuisine —wrapped in pie dough with vegetables and minced meat and baked— and grilled meat on skewers....Even if Ellis\' hadn\'t, his stomach would have probably rumbled.

"Are you going to buy something at the stall? Or, are you going into a restaurant somewhere?"

"Mm, no, err..."

Thereupon, Ellis suddenly began to fidget for some reason.

"T-The truth is... I\'ve made something though."

"Uh?"

Then, out of nowhere, a demon wind spirit in the form of an eagle came flying over.

It was Ellis\' Simorghdemon wind spirit. It was holding onto a large basket in its claws.

"As expected."

Kamito was impressed.

To even make a bento herself, she was truly a capable young lady.

"Well then, I\'m going to buy something at the stall."

"W-Wa-Wa-Wait!"

Ellis caught hold of Kamito\'s neck as he was about to walk off.

"Wh-What?"

"Th-There\'s also your share..."

"Eh?"

"S-So, I\'m saying that I also made your share!"

"My share?"

"Y-Yeah, because whether I make one or two, the time taken doesn\'t change that much. D-Don\'t misunderstand, I only made it because it would be wasteful to have ingredients left over!"

"I thank you for that. Ellis\' bento is something I could look forward to."

"Mu[1], if you look forward to it that much, I\'ll feel troubled."

"Ahem", Ellis\' cheeks reddened as she coughed.

"Well then, shall we find some place we can settle down somewhere—"

Ellis looked around the vicinity, and—

"Ah, Captain, there you are, shall we have lunch together?"

"Wh—!?"

While waving their hands on the opposite side of the road, a group of three girls came running over with the sound of their light footsteps.

All of them were Sylphid Knight members, who put on lightweight armor on top of their uniforms.

"Y-You girls, what about your patrol of the town?!"

"It\'s currently the time for the Ryuska-unit to be responsible for the patrol. After that, I had thought of having lunch with everyone. Captain, how about having it together with us?"

"Err, I have a prior commitment with Kamito—"

"Ah, how sly. Captain, you\'re planning to take hold of Kamito all by yourself!"

"Abuse of authority—"

"Captain, you perv!"

The three girls criticized Ellis simultaneously.

"I\'m not taking hold of Kamito all by myself or something!"

Ellis turned bright red and flared up.

"Isn\'t that fine? You know, I couldn\'t do a self-introduction properly this morning, after all."

"Th-That was so, but, however..."

Ellis sighed, and—

"...I understand. Well then, let\'s have lunch with everyone."

"Mu", she glared at Kamito with a reproachful-like look and nodded.

Part 3

Just like that, they ended up having lunch at a nearby park.

It was a lushly-green natural park near the plaza.

Within the busy town it was only quiet here, because of the Valentia Holy Festival preparations.

The Knights girls sat on top of the lawn, and opened their lunch boxes.

The three of theirs were sandwiches, but only Ellis\' was different.

"Oh? That\'s amazingly extravagant."

"...I-Is that so? B-But it\'s nothing special, it\'s the same as usual."

Kamito raised his voice in admiration, and Ellis looked downwards as she was a little embarrassed.

There were potato-salad sandwiches, sausages, fried eggs, fruits that were cut into perfectly shaped sizes and more placed inside the slightly large lunch box.

"Lies, you usually only have peanut butter sandwiches, and yet—"

"The apples are also cut nicely into the shape of Mr. Rabbits!"

"The sausages are also made into Mr. Octopuses!"

Being glared at motionlessly with scornful eyes by the three girls, Ellis ended up being overwhelmed.

"Y-You girls too—"

Dodging the question, she faced the three and thrust her index finger out sternly.

"Despite being afraid of Kamito this morning, what on earth is with this turn of events?"

"..."

As a matter of fact, that was also bothering Kamito.

The reputation Kamito had from being a male elementalist in an academy of boxed-in young ladies was extremely bad. There were things like pervert, licentious beast, Demon King of the Night... Cruel misunderstandings were being made.

Furthermore, although there were circumstances, he had even seen the girls changing clothes this morning.

His first impression was supposed to be the worst.

The three of them mutually looked at each other\'s faces, and made a bewildered-like face.

"U-Um... Honestly, I\'m still a little afraid."

"When I saw Captain talking normally to him, I thought he isn\'t such a bad person or something."

"Besides, he opposed that Velsaria head-on, how amazing."

The three of them placed both hands on their cheeks, and their faces slightly reddened for some reason.

Ellis slightly and sullenly pulled her lips back and pouted at such an appearance from the three of them.

"It\'s nothing, I just didn\'t like her."

Kamito agilely picked up a sandwich made by Ellis.

It was a ham-and-egg sandwich. The pepper was working, and it had a simple yet very pleasant seasoning.

"Delicious. To be able to make such a simple thing delicious is proof of your excellent skills."

"R-Really?...That\'s great."

Ellis took a breath of relief.

"D-Don\'t hold back, eat up!"

"Ah, well then, I shan\'t hold back—"

Kamito was about to toss the sandwich into his mouth, and at that moment.

*Nom*.

The sandwich in his hand suddenly disappeared.

*Nom nom*.

"...Est, what are you doing?"

Est had returned to her human form from the sword and was beside him.

"Kamito, I\'m also hungry. Feed me please."

"...It can\'t be helped, come on."

Kamito made a wry smile as he reached out to the sandwich.

He tore it into small pieces so that it\'d be easy to eat, and threw it into Est\'s mouth.

*Nom nom*.

Chewing the bread expressionlessly, Est was almost like a small animal.

"Uh, Kamito, Th-That\'s the sandwiches I made for you, you know."

Ellis puffed her cheeks out with a "hmph".

"Ah, Est-chan is cute～"

"I also want to feed her!"

"Eat my sandwich, eat my sandwich too!"

The three Knights girls presented Est with food one after another.

*Nom*. *Nom nom*.

"As I thought she\'s a great one revered by humans."

"...No, she\'s completely being fed like an animal, you know?"

"Fua..."

Soon, Est made a lovely yawn, and threw herself onto Kamito\'s lap.

When he thought that she would instantly be making sweet sleeping-breaths—

Her body turned into particles of light, vanished into an empty space and returned back into her original sword form.

"Ah, she turned back into a sword..."

One of the girls muttered, seemingly disappointed.

"She ate all she could eat and went to sleep."

As Kamito placed Est back into the sword belt on his waist, he shrugged his shoulders in exasperation.

Est, who was detached from her Astral Zero body, was different from other contracted spirits, normally she would be spending almost the whole day in a sleeping state. Once she fell into this state, she pretty much wouldn\'t wake up.

After that, he ate the sandwiches as the time passed quietly.

The topics, which were brought up, were about the endless lectures and the books they read recently.

The Knights girls seemed tense about talking to Kamito but, a short while later, they had gradually opened their hearts....However, Ellis was making a face like she was not amused for some reason.

(Nevertheless—)

There was something Kamito suddenly noticed while the girls were talking.

"Even though you\'re in the Knights, all of you are normal girls?"

"Fue~?"

The three of them had their faces slightly reddened at the same time.

"Erm... N-Normal girls? Wh-What...do...you...mean?"

"Err, I certainly thought that you all would be like Ellis."

"Kamito, what do you mean by that?"

Ellis was sullenly glaring at him.

"Err, more strict, or rather, capable or something—"

"It was like that before. People like us would be discharged after all."

One of the three girls muttered.

"Yeah, it was the time when Velsaria was captain."

"She suppressed everything with power, honestly, the atmosphere in the academy wasn\'t good."

The other two also nodded their heads together. As they were members that joined after Ellis was inaugurated as captain, they seemed to be dissatisfied with former captain Velsaria\'s way of doing things.

"Was there no one, who would oppose Velsaria?"

The ones attending the academy were mostly highly-prideful daughters of nobles.

If they were suppressed by power like that, there should also be many people opposing her.

"—Of course, there were. Several people too."

Ellis cut into the conversation.

"However, even the most superior class upperclassman wasn\'t a threat to her. In the end, the reason that my esteemed sister stepped down from the duty of captain was because of the pressure from influential nobles."

"The ones, who rebelled against Velsaria to the very end were roughly those from the Raven Class. Especially hell cat Claire Rouge, even the Knights at that time seemed to have gotten their hands burnt."

"Well, but Claire Rouge is still a problem child now."

"...I see."

The confrontation between Claire and the Knights seemed to be something from the time before Ellis was inaugurated as captain.

Suddenly, Claire\'s face from yesterday came into Kamito\'s mind.

(...Is she still angry?)

Listening to the current conversation, Kamito also reconsidered that his explanation wasn\'t sufficient.

Since there was such a discord, it was also natural that she got angry after hearing that Kamito joined the Knights.

The truth was that he thought of looking into her room in the morning, but he was so extremely busy with the Knights work that he couldn\'t meet her.

—Just at that moment.

"Hn?"

Something passed by near his field of vision.

Kamito blinked and squinted.

It was the main street of town that could be seen from the park.

A small red tail was in sight among the teeming hustle and bustle.

(...Is that Scarlet?)

Scarlet was skillfully making its way through the congestion, as it seemed to be walking to somewhere.

Claire wasn\'t seen beside it.

(What is it doing?)

Then, like it noticed Kamito\'s gaze—

Scarlet instantly stopped and turned around towards him.

After that, it immediately disappeared into the congestion.

(...Is it telling me to follow it?)

"What\'s the matter, Kamito?"

"Sorry, I remembered that I\'ve got a slight errand to do. I\'ll come back quickly."

Chasing after Scarlet\'s tail, which disappeared among the hustle and bustle, Kamito ran off.

Part 4

"Come on, Scarlet, where the heck did you go?!"

Claire ruffled up her red twintails, and was furiously angry.

The moment they walked into town, she ended up separated from Scarlet, and before she knew it, she got lost in some back alley.

Claire, who usually didn\'t go out to Academy Town, was virtually unfamiliar with the area. Also, Scarlet didn\'t seem to have returned to Astral Zero, so she couldn\'t even summon it.

There were no signs of people in the back alley. The Valentia Holy Festival seemed to be beginning over at the plaza, everyone had been gathering over there.

"...What\'s with this, aaah."

Claire restlessly looked around her surroundings, seemingly in anxiety.

Of course, hoodlums and the like were no match for Claire, an elementalist. Nevertheless, she somehow ended up feeling uneasy.

"...That guy too, he completely didn\'t return!"

Claire irritably made a *snap* sound with her whip.

To begin with, the reason Claire had gone out to town was for the sake of finding Kamito.

She had waited throughout the whole night yesterday, but Kamito didn\'t return in the end.

"What...? Despite the fact that I\'d have forgiven you if you\'d have honestly apologized."

Claire had also reflected a little about the part where she chased Kamito out without hearing his story out fully.

She absolutely couldn\'t forgive him for being in Ellis\' room, but still, without saying cinders, she had planned on letting it end with him being about half-burnt at most.

(...Only for once, only once, I\'ll forgive him for swinging his tail at Ellis, despite his slave spirit social standing. I\'m really tolerant, almost like a saint.)

Brushing her twintailed red hair quickly, Claire took out a small pouch from her uniform\'s pocket. It was a lovely pouch coiled with a yellow ribbon.

Inside were handmade chocolates.

Due to practicing over several times, she finally could make something that wasn\'t cinders.

"I-If he obediently apologized, I\'d give him this as a reward. This is at most a reward. It has nothing to do with stuff like the Valentia Holy Festival."

Claire was muttering alone, when—

"Nyaa?"

"Hiwaa!"

Claire sprung up with shock.

When she turned around in a fluster, Scarlet had tilted its head to the side near her feet.

"A-Ahh, don\'t scare me!...Good grief, you got lost as soon as we got here."

The one, who had been lost, was Claire, but she didn\'t admit that.

At that time, running footsteps were drawing closer from the other side of the alley.

"Claire!"

"...?"

Claire turned around, and the one that appeared from the corner of the alley was Kamito.

He was very out of breath, like he has been running for some time.

"Ka-Kamito! Why—"

"I caught sight of Scarlet\'s silhouette, and chased it here."

"Eh?"

(D-Does that mean he came looking for me?)

Claire made an angry-like, troubled-like, happy-like ambiguous face.

For the time being, as they were still in the middle of a quarrel, she didn\'t know what kind of expression she should be making.

(Th-That\'s right, I can\'t be making a sweet face here!)

The highly-prideful Claire had absolutely no intention of forgiving him until an apology came from Kamito. For the master to be apologizing to the slave was something that could absolutely not happen.

"Hmm, w-what did you come for at this point in time?!"

"You too, what are you doing at a place like this?"

Kamito asked, seemingly puzzled.

"...I-It\'s nothing, it isn\'t like I was searching for you."

"Ahh, I definitely understand that, but—"

"Doesn\'t that mean you don\'t understand?!"

Claire agitatedly raised her whip up— Then, she suddenly desisted from doing so.

If she swung her whip here, it\'d end up the same as yesterday.

"...W-Well, that\'s fine."

Claire lowered the whip she raised, and roughly brushed her hair.

Kamito was carrying a blank look.

"Hey, Kamito? Just by chance, I\'m casually free this afternoon."

"...? Is that so?"

"That\'s right. S-So, err, treat me to cake or something at a coffee lounge or somewhere! Th-Then, I\'ll have... no... choice but to forgive you, you know?"

Her cheeks slightly reddened, and she glanced at Kamito with one eye.

Those words just now were the greatest compromise for this highly-prideful Claire.

It wasn\'t like she wanted to be treated to cake. For Claire, it was her plan to give him an easy pretext to apologize.

Kamito would say "What, it can\'t be helped" as he treated her to cake, and Claire would go "Hmm, I\'ll forgive you in consideration of this cake" while shrugging her shoulders— Just like that, she thought she could patch up their relationship with a bit-by-bit-like atmosphere.

(It\'s probably too late, but tentatively, he did come to apologize. I\'m also not a kid, so I\'ll leniently forgive him.)

"Sorry, I have to police Academy Town with Ellis today."

"Oh, I understand. With Ellis...?"

Claire\'s face froze in a snap.

"H-Hey, Kamito... I didn\'t hear it well, but... what was that just now?"

"I said, I have Knights work. I am going around and policing the town with Ellis."

Kamito plainly said it once more.

"..."

"Hey, Claire?"

"O-Oh? With Ellis...it\'s a date, I-Isn\'t it."

Claire\'s voice was trembling all over.

"No, it isn\'t a date, it\'s Knights—"

"Oh, you\'ve already become the Knights\' dog, haven\'t you? That badge suits you, doesn\'t it?"

*Gogogogogogogogo...!*

"...!?"

Claire was angry.

Her red twintailed hair bristled up, and she was with an impulse like she was going to release a fireball anytime soon.

"You, just hear me out a little. You don\'t have to look at the Knights with that much hostility, do you?"

"W-What, don\'t say it like you understand!"

Claire flared up, and raised her whip.

*Gyruruu*.

"..."

A somewhat lovely sound was heard.

While Claire held her whip overhead, she awkwardly averted her eyes.

"You, could it be that you haven\'t had lunch yet?"

"What, isn\'t that because you didn\'t make it for me—?"

"The one who chased me out was you."

"That\'s... true, but..."

Claire glared at Kamito, and groaned.

"Claire, if it\'s alright with you, would you eat with me?"

"Eh?"

Claire widened her ruby eyes.

"...Th-That\'s... well..."

Her face reddened, and abruptly turned away.

"I-If you insisted no matter what, I\'m fine with that."

"Well then, come. I am eating together with Ellis and the others at the park over there."

"...!?"

*Pikuu*. Claire\'s temple twitched.

"Wh-What are you saying, you... Are you an idiot?!"

"I understand that you\'re on poor relations with the Knights, but they\'re all normal girls. If you had a meal together with them, wouldn\'t you become on good terms with them?"

"I have no intentions of being friends with them. I\'ve hated the people from the Knights since a long time ago. I don\'t care if they\'re elite or not, but they utterly insulted Nee-sama!"

"Isn\'t that about the former Knights, Ellis isn\'t someone like that—"

"...What, Ellis this, Ellis that!"

Claire finally exploded. She was already at the limit of her tolerance.

Releasing her elemental waffe, she tightly grasped her blazing Flametounge.

...She didn\'t understand why.

However, it was unbearably vexing that Kamito was friendly with the Knights and Ellis.

"You are my slave spirit, so you\'re only mine!"

Her Flametounge was swung down as her emotions told.

However.

"—Leave it at that, Claire Rouge."

"...!?"

Her blazing Flametounge was held entangled by a lance clad in violent winds.

"It\'s a violation of school rules for a normal student to be using an elemental waffe in town."

"Ellis!?"

Ellis, who stood like she was protecting Kamito, was glaring at Claire with a relentless look.

"...!"

Claire gnawed down on her molars, seemingly vexed.

Large droplets of tears surfaced on her clear ruby pupils.

"...Enough."

"Eh?"

"That\'s enough, idiot, do as you please!"

"H-Hey, Claire... Guaa!"

Claire threw the bag of chocolates with all her strength at Kamito\'s face.

"I despise people like you! Wh-Why don\'t you just get along with Ellis—"

Claire shouted with a voice mangled with tears and ran away immediately.

Part 5

"—Hey, wasn\'t that Claire Rouge just now?"

The upperclassmen witnessed Claire\'s appearance of dashing out from the alley.

They were the adamantine elementalist and the demon mirror elementalist, who fought Claire\'s team yesterday.

The two of them glared annoyingly at Claire, who was running away.

"...She\'s alone now. We\'re also outside of the academy, where it\'s beyond the eyes of the teachers."

The adamantine elementalist girl exchanged looks, and

"It\'s useless. Look! That male elementalist and Captain-dono are around."

It was just the moment when Kamito and Ellis emerged, chasing Claire.

"Tch, that male elementalist joined the Knights, didn\'t he?"

"Isn\'t it that they\'re shorthanded because of the assault the other day? Compared to Velsaria\'s time, the quality of the Sylphid Knights had also fallen greatly."

The two of them were former members of the Knights.

Their confrontational relationship with that audacious Claire Rogue also stemmed from that period.

That said, their conduct lacked integrity to begin with. For example, they persistently misused and abused their authority as Knights to torment weaker students. After Ellis became captain, she had expelled these two from the Knights.

"However, if it\'s just three underclassmen, we could—"

"You better give it a rest. Even you two would be no match even if you join forces."

"...!?"

The two of them quickly poised themselves at the voice from behind.

The one, who was standing there without even her presence felt by the two elementalists, was—

A jade-green haired, bewitchingly beautiful girl.

"Hey, you two, don\'t you desire for more splendid power?"

"Wh...at...?"

"Mighty power, to the extent that that hell cat girl wouldn\'t be a problem."

MurdersCorpse Federation merchant, Vivian Melosa\'s red pupils ominously shone.

References and Translation Notes

1. ↑ A sound made when someone is slightly annoyed.