Lilliana Roseblood POV
"Nnnnghh, Finally all done."
Lilliana stretched her body and placed her pen on the desk in front of her.
"Ugh, I can't wait to sleep."
Thanks to the upcoming mock duel, she had hardly had any rest over the past week as she needed to read every one of her students' report sheets, then decide with the other first-year professors which each student's opponent would be.
Upon tidying all of her work away, she left her office and headed in the direction of the professor's dormitory.
On her way there, as usual, she passed by the magic training grounds.
It was a huge building, one of the biggest in Stellaris Academy, and every time Lilliana saw it, she couldn't help but be brought back to her academy days.
'It's only been a few months.'
Only a few months ago, Lilliana had also been a student of Stellaris, and each time she remembered that, she couldn't help but feel that her current position was surreal.
She smiled as she reminisced about the past, about to walk past the magic training grounds when…
Fwaaaaa—!
She noticed that the door was open and light was leaking out.
'Someone's still using it?'
It had long passed midnight, and most students, being nobles, had very healthy routines, so Lilliana was somewhat surprised to find out that a student was still using the training grounds so late into the night.
Normally, even noticing that she would have walked past without even paying attention, but today, for some reason, she felt curious as to who was working hard so late into the night.
—Creeaaak
In the middle of the training hall stood a boy with his signature snow-white hair, a boy who at first glance could easily be mistaken for a girl.
It was someone that Lilliana had started to become familiar with over their lunches together this past week.
Upon first glance, he looked frail, sickly even.
Lilliana had also made that assumption at first, but the boy in front of her seemed anything but that.
His breathing was heavy, and he was drenched in sweat.
Lilliana wasn't sure how long he had been here, but it was evident that it was a long time.
The fact that he hadn't even noticed Lilliana's presence even now also showed that the boy was deep in concentration.
She couldn't help but smile at the sight before her eyes.
If anyone else saw that, they would have been shocked, but for the boy, it was becoming a more common occurrence.
She decided that she shouldn't interrupt him and quietly closed the door, continuing on her way back towards her dorm.
'..I'm glad he's doing better now.'
••✦ ♡ ✦•••
Soren Arden POV
"I feel like shit."
A week had passed since the Rena Forest incident, meaning the mock duels were now upon him.
Thud
He collapsed onto the floor and called out a command that was becoming more and more familiar to him as time passed.
"「Status」"
.
[Status Window]
Name: Soren Arden (1★)
Age: 18
◈ Stats
Stamina - 0.8 (F+)
Strength - 0.6 (F+)
Agility - 0.8 (F+) [Increased by 0.1]
Mana - 0.9 (F+) [Increased by 0.1]
Divine Power - 0.3 (F)
Charm - 8.7 (S-)
◈ Skills
- Life Magic
- Basic Magic
└ Gaia (E-)
└ Aqua (F+)
└ Ignition (E-)
- Concentration (F)
.
"Finally–!"
Soren cheered at the sight of [Ignition] finally crossing into E-rank territory.
He wiped the sweat off his brow and then finally noticed his state.
"Ew, when did I get so sweaty? 「Clean」"
Within seconds, the sweat and dirt on his body and clothes had evaporated and disappeared.
'Once again, thank god for magic.'
"Well.. tomorrow's the day."
The mock duels—the first major event of TKS—were tomorrow.
This meant it had finally been a month since Soren had transmigrated into this world.
He felt slightly emotional at the thought when a translucent window caught his eye, interrupting his thoughts.
Why was he doing something so out of character, like training hard late into the night?
It was because of the window in front of him.
.
▶ Main Quest: First Steps (1) ◀
[Details: Win all 3 duels.]
[Difficulty: C]
[Reward: Inventory, Hidden Reward.]
[Penalty: -0.5 to all stats.]
.
Originally, he had planned to win the mock duels anyway, which led to the Rena Forest incident, but seeing this quest no longer gave him a choice.
The penalty itself wouldn't affect Soren all that much, but there was no way he would be happy with just accepting such a thing, which was what led to this situation, well, that and one other thing.
'A difficulty level of C.'
In ❰The Knight of Stellaris❱ quest difficulty usually went from F to S.
An F-rank quest was almost always a dialogue-only event, or if it wasn't, it was so much of a cakewalk that you wouldn't even need to think about it.
S-rank, on the other hand, meant that the likelihood of clearing such a quest was so infinitesimally small that it was more likely that you were meant to fail the quest to begin with.
In addition to these lettered rankings, there were also '+' and '-' ranks, and beyond the normal ranks, there were 'Personal' and 'Unknown' difficulties.
The quest difficulty itself was always based purely on your character's status window. This meant that if, for example, you received a quest with a difficulty ranking of C, like Soren had, it meant that it would be fairly challenging for his current specs.
A few days ago, back when he first received this quest, it was originally C+ difficulty, which proved that his training had paid off.
There was also another reason Soren had decided to train.
It was to tire himself out.
Ever since obtaining [Concentration], he had been itching to put it into practice, and now he finally had that opportunity, which led to him being unable to sleep properly.
While practising with [Concentration], Soren did end up worrying, though.
The subject of his worry was Amelia Einhardt.
Due to his now unique way of fighting, Soren had considered the idea that he may become a subject of her interest, but that worry was quickly shaken off when he realised how arrogant a thought it was.
Although his way of fighting may be unique now, that didn't change the fact that his spells and stats were pathetically weak.
There was also the fact that he only trained with [Concentration] for a total of a week, meaning that even if the way he fought looked unique, it would still be sloppy thanks to a lack of practice.
And above all, tomorrow was the day when Alex would reveal himself as the hero by using his [Divinity].
'It'll be fun to see such a cool scene from the game in real life.'
Soren raised his head and noticed the moonlight shining through the window.
'It's already this late?'
He decided now was a good time to stop and stood up, preparing to go back to the dorm and get some much-needed rest.
••✦ ♡ ✦•••
Soren stretched and let out a big yawn before leaning back on the bench.
"Did our little hedgehog not get enough sleep?"
"Ugh… just.. shut it. It's too early for this."
Thanks to him going to bed late, Soren had been exhausted ever since he had woken up.
'I should've gone to sleep earlier.'
"So who're your opponents?"
"Ah, right, I should check that."
Soren grabbed his bag from the floor and rummaged through it, pulling out a crumpled piece of paper.
"Uhm, let's see… magical studies Rank 89 Doron Inenklees and Rank 83 Eugene. Then for combat studies Rank 83 Yuli Enron… Huh?"
"Wait, let me see."
Grab
"Hey Soren, aren't you ranked 96 or something?"
"Yeah. I don't know why the hell they've got me fighting people over ten ranks higher."
"It's not even just that, look here."
He pointed to the name 'Yuli Enron'
"Your final duel is against Rank 83 of combat studies. That's strange."
Soren nodded in agreement.
As far as duels at Stellaris Academy went, the general premise was you fought someone ranked lower, someone around the same rank and then finally someone ranked higher.
Soren's opponent list was very weird.
It wasn't just the rankings either.
"It's common knowledge that magicians are weaker in 1 on 1 combat than warriors; that's why this is even weirder. Usually, for magical studies, the combat studies opponent is the lower-ranked one to make it more fair."
'That explains the difficulty rating.'
"I guess they see me as someone whose rank is incorrect?"
"There's no other explanation. Are you gonna be okay, though? combat studies kids are ruthless against magicians."
Soren found it strange that Felix was genuinely worried about him.
"I should be fine, it's not like I've been sitting on my ass doing nothing. Who are you fighting anyway?"
"Heh, take a look."
Felix handed a piece of paper to him. Upon reading the contents, Soren's eyes widened.
'Rank 25 of combat studies. Rank 21 and 18 of Magical studies…'
He couldn't help but curse at the unfairness.
"Fuck! Why is human garbage like you so strong? It's unfair! The world is wrong!"
"Hehehe, What can you do? I was just born this way."
"Ugh, I'm gonna puke."
[Rank 96 and 89 of magical studies come down to the arena.]
"Your turn, little hedgehog, do us proud."
"Shut it, trash."
While walking down to the arena, Soren thought back to the opponents listed on his paper.
Rank 89 and 83 of magical studies, and Rank 83 of combat studies.
While he had been initially surprised by the difference in ranks, Soren soon remembered something.
'They're all class E.'
Thanks to the quest, he was well aware that he couldn't expect the duels to be easy, but he also knew there was no reason to be anxious.
'C rank is doable.'
Reaching the arena, he started stretching his body and looked up at the audience.
"Wow, nobody gives a shit about us, huh?"
It was to be expected since it was a duel between two students of the lowest ranks.
'Ah, wait, one person is watching.'
Soren raised his hand and flipped off the piece of garbage who had waved at him before looking back at his opponent.
"Tsk, how unrefined, no wonder you have no friends besides that disgusting filth you always hang around."
"..."
Soren couldn't help but be confused by his opponent's words.
'Is this guy seriously doing this?'
"Kekeke, Look at you, not even being able to talk back, am I that terrifying?"
"..."
Soren pinched the bridge of his nose and closed his eyes.
'Do people like this really exist?'
He had expected it to some extent, given that it was a medieval fantasy, but seeing such a snobby rich kid in person left him speechless.
"Give up now, and I'll go easy on you."
Soren sighed at the cheap provocations and spoke.
"Listen, man, I don't know where you're pulling your confidence from, but you're only just in class E. Maybe tone down the third-rate villain act a little, okay?"
Being ranked 89th meant that Doron Inenklees was only just barely within class E, as class F contained students ranked 90th-100th.
"What—! You dare mock me? Do you have any idea who I am–?!"
"Not a clue."
"You—!!!"
"Please stop, it's embarrassing."
It may have sounded like provocation, but Soren genuinely felt embarrassed by Doron's words.
'Things like this were fine in the game, but here it's so cringey…'
[Mock duel between Soren Arden and Doron Inenklees begins.]
After the TA announced the start of the duel, Soren kept his distance, choosing to play it safe and wait for Doron to throw out a few attacks so he could see what he was dealing with.
In Soren's mind, even if someone had a personality as bad as that, it didn't mean that they were weak; a great example of that was the guy that Soren always hung around.
Whooosh!
Soren easily dodged the shockwave that Doron fired off and waited for his next attack.
Fwoosh
But Soren quickly noticed something was off.
'What is he doing?'
Roughly a minute had passed since the duel had begun, and Doron had only fired off a total of four spells.
On top of that, the spells he had fired off were all basic magic with proficiency not much higher than Sorens.
At first, he had thought Doron was messing with him, baiting him into lowering his guard, but upon further inspection, it was clear that wasn't the case as sweat trickled down his forehead and he gritted his teeth.
Soren stood there in disbelief.
'No, what the hell is this? Difficulty C? Bullshit.'
"Uh, hey… don't take this the wrong way, but.. Is this really it? Where did all that confidence come from?"
– Ahaha!
A laugh was heard from the audience, and Doron's face contorted with rage.
"WHAT DID YOU JUST SAY—?!"
"You know what… just forget it."
To Soren, his reaction had already answered his question well enough, but Doron couldn't accept that.
"I'LL MAKE YOU PAY–!!"
"Maybe you should get those anger issues checked, 'kay?"
Soren watched Doron's face turn as red as a tomato in real time.
Shatter
'He can't even hold a magic circle anymore.'
Soren was starting to understand why Doron had been trying to provoke him so hard earlier.
Every time Doron attempted to form a magic circle in his hand, it would shatter completely, thanks to his letting his emotions get the better of him.
'This is just getting sad… let's just end it.'
For the first time since the duel had begun, Soren started moving.
Dash
He started running towards Doron, not even bothering to cast any spells.
Doron began to panic when he realised he could no longer cast, and his face was filled with embarrassment.
Just as Soren reached Doron, he pulled his leg back and…
Thud!
Kicked him right in the stomach.
Then just as Doron was about to fall to the floor, Soren grabbed Doron by his long brown his and pulled his leg back once again, this time aiming for a completely different location.
Doron, noticing this, began to panic.
"Wait, wait! No! Stop! Not there!"
But Soren didn't listen.
Thud!
"Kuh–! C-Crazy Bastard—! Cough!"
Soren let go of his hair, and Doron collapsed onto the ground.
[Soren Arden wins.]
Doron's eyes were filled with tears as he covered his precious spot with his hands.
At the sight in front of him, Soren smirked, which caused Doron to start threatening him again, but Soren didn't listen and instead turned around to go back to his seat.
– Ew, what's wrong with him?
– Ugh, that kind of personality is the worst.
A few comments were coming from the audience seats, but Soren paid no mind to them.
'He was the one who started it in the first place.'
"Did you have fun, little hedgehog?"
"Yup, it was great. Did you hear what he was saying?"
"It was pretty funny how he kept saying stuff like 'Do you know who I am?!'"
"What kind of backing does he even have to have confidence like that?"
"Supposedly, he's from a viscounty in central Fialova."
Soren paused at Felix's words.
"Wait, his status is lower than mine?"
To put it into perspective the Arden family is a border Count family who are very highly respected thanks to the achievements they've piled up defending against Valefor, and Doron, who Soren had just thoroughly trampled on, was from some nameless viscount family in the capital, meaning he was just a pampered noble who had never seen a day of hardship in his life.
"Yeah, that's what was so funny. He'll probably get into trouble for trying to abuse his status, though, I mean, he was so loud about it that even people watching other duels started paying attention."
'That explains the voices at the end of the duel.'
"Seriously, though, what an idiot. I know it's just a rule in name only, but if he's that public about it, he's basically begging to be punished."
[Rank 23 of magical studies and Rank 25 of combat studies, please come down to the arena.]
"Welp, that's me. Cheer me on, okay?"
"Don't worry, you can count on me. I'll cheer my heart out for Rank 25."
"That's the spirit, little hedgehog."
Pat pat
Felix patted Soren's shoulder, causing him to recoil in disgust.
He then looked down at the arena, trying to see if there were any interesting duels ongoing, when golden-blonde hair caught his eye.
'There he is.'
Soren grinned at the sight.
Alex, the protagonist, was standing in the arena.
————「❤︎」————