A new teaching assistant had arrived at the Swordsmanship Department, none other than the young man who had been roped in to temporarily assist Cynthia during the Magic Department’s academic leader evaluation.
Although this young man named Kelly was not exceptionally tall and lacked a particularly bulky physique, he possessed superb swordsmanship, a handsome appearance, and a very easygoing demeanor in both speech and action.
Aside from the students of his own department, who were repeatedly beaten into the dust by him and thus harbored a fair bit of grievance, this person could be said to be wildly popular across all other departments, especially the Healing Department.
So much so that whenever practical combat classes were held for various subjects, there was always a crowd of people who abandoned their assigned drills just to run over and watch this new teaching assistant.
It so happened that today, the practical combat classes for the Magic Department and the Swordsmanship Department were scheduled at the exact same time. The magic students promptly dropped their training targets and swarmed around the periphery of the swordsmanship grounds to watch Kelly.
Cynthia had originally wanted to go over and say hello. After all, the man had helped her first, and when they ran into each other at school the other day, Kelly had even patiently spent a large part of the day comforting and listening to her.
However, after looking at the human wall her classmates had formed around the swordsmanship side, she decided to postpone this greeting until the latter half of the class.
Holding her staff, Cynthia chanted an incantation. A fire snake materialized before her, weaving flexibly through the air twice before slamming into the training target. She had deliberately sacrificed the spell’s destructive power in pursuit of flexibility, so upon impact, the training target remained solidly planted in place without suffering any violent damage.
Not bad. That was done very well.
Cynthia nodded in satisfaction and raised her hand once more. But before she had even chanted two syllables of the incantation, a cheer erupted from the direction of the spectators. Kelly had knocked down another student.
For the first time in history, Cynthia botched her incantation.
Lowering her staff, she felt a profound sense of self-reproach for letting her mind wander right in the middle of casting a spell.
A female classmate from her class squeezed out from the crowd just then. Seeing that Cynthia was still here beating up a training target, she asked, “Cynthia, aren’t you going to take a look? Kelly is amazing, he just knocked down the Swordsmanship Department’s academic leader too.”
“I originally wanted to go over,” Cynthia replied gently, “but he is far too popular, so I figured I would practice for a little while first.”
“Go take a look!” The female classmate pushed against Cynthia’s shoulder, shoving her away from the front of the training target. “That is your, that is your comrade-in-arms who fought side by side with you! Go give him some cheers!”
Cynthia wasn’t particularly stand-offish among her classmates, but being shoved along in such an ungraceful manner was a first for her. While a bit perplexed, she didn’t refuse either, and was thus propelled right up to the edge of the crowd.
As she pushed Cynthia forward, the girl shouted at the top of her lungs, “Make way, everyone! Make way! Clear a path for Cynthia!”
An eerie commotion rippled through the spectators. Whether they were Cynthia’s supporters or the Holy Maiden’s supporters, they all stepped backward with uncanny coordination, carving out a reasonably spacious pathway just for Cynthia.
Cynthia wore a puzzled expression. With everyone acting in such synchronized unison, could there be some arrangement today that she knew nothing about?
For instance, although the opponent was said to be Kelly, was it actually Holy Maiden Betty who had brought people along, waiting to settle the score?
As she walked, she scanned the crowd and happened to see Betty turning around to return to the Magic Department’s practice area.
This only added to Cynthia’s confusion.
At the center of the spectating crowd, Lilica was wielding her greatsword to brutally pummel a student. The greatsword was exceptionally heavy, yet her posture was so nimble she might as well have been swinging a light rapier.
Not far from them, a small pile of strange, strap-heavy items lay discarded on the ground.
When Cynthia was pushed to the very front of the spectator crowd, she heard a wave of jeering from those around her.
This left Cynthia even more bewildered. “What on earth is going on today?”
The classmate who had pushed her replied, “Nothing is going on. We just all think you should go check on Kelly.” And discover just how handsome Kelly really was!
Yes, without Cynthia’s knowledge, the students across the entire academy, regardless of faction, had reached a consensus: crank up the matchmaking efforts to pair up Cynthia and Kelly, the ultimate combat duo who had displayed peerless tactical synergy right from their very first meeting!
Cynthia’s supporters believed that Cynthia’s excellence was beyond question, and that her engagement with Prince Mita was quite literally holding back her true potential. Since Mita spent every day badmouthing Cynthia while dragging his feet on formalizing the contract, they decided to lend a hand and help these two break things off sooner rather than later.
Holy Maiden Betty’s supporters believed that Cynthia’s high-handed tyranny stemmed entirely from her royal engagement and noble status. Although they hadn’t yet figured out a way to strip away Cynthia’s noble title, cutting off the engagement first would chip away at her influence bit by bit.
Though Mita’s popularity at the academy had plummeted steadily since the start of the term, he still retained a foundation of royalist supporters.
Furthermore, these royalist partisans happened to be the ones who cursed Cynthia the most viciously.
They railed against Cynthia for lacking the bigger picture, repeatedly putting the royal family in embarrassing positions, and even going so far as to physically assault her own fiancé, completely glossing over the fact that Mita was the one who had proposed teaming up in battle. If someone like that truly became the crown princess in the future, she would undoubtedly spell disaster for the royal family!
With public sentiment running so high, this engagement was bound to collapse whether they liked it or not!
Lilica batted a student flying with a single swing of her sword, pausing to tuck back a strand of slightly overgrown bangs while thinking she really ought to get them trimmed. When she turned her head, she spotted Cynthia looking utterly bewildered.
“Cynthia!” Lilica didn’t even put down the heavy sword in her hand, jogging over with the fifty-plus-pound weapon in tow. “Are you guys having practical combat class today too? What a coincidence!”
“Yes, we happen to have ours today as well,” Cynthia replied, an involuntary smile gracing her lips. “I watched your fight just now. It was brilliant.”
Lilica rubbed the tip of her nose in bashful embarrassment, offering a shy smile. “None of them have much combat experience. Beating them is practically bullying.”
“You are all roughly the same age. Winning comes down entirely to your superior strength.”
Lilica grew even more sheepish. “I’m still not as formidable as you.”
From the other side of the training ground came the swordsmanship professor’s voice: “Kelly, come here for a moment. I have something to discuss with you.”
“The professor is calling me, I need to head over.” Lilica cast a glance that way before turning back to Cynthia. “Oh right, Carlo asked me to tell you that Antcana insists Lilica must observe absolute bed rest, and told you not to go disturb her for a while.”
Cynthia frowned. “Has her condition gotten that severe? Would it be better to send her home to recuperate?”
“It’s not that exaggerated, it’s just that Antcana is quite cautious,” Lilica fabricated the lie as she went. “Besides, there aren’t any good healers in the countryside, whereas Antcana is right here.”
The professor’s voice rang out again: “Kelly!”
“Coming!” Lilica called back, hoisting her greatsword as she prepared to leave. “Cynthia, I’m heading over first. See you later.”
“See you later,” Cynthia replied. “Do your best, Kelly.”
Lilica walked away beaming like a blooming flower.
A small cheer erupted among the surrounding crowd: Phase one of the public operation was a resounding success!
It was only then that Cynthia noticed that even after she finished talking with Kelly, the onlookers not only hadn’t dispersed, but seemed to have multiplied.
Utterly baffled, she wondered what was going on. Did none of these people have training to do?
Over on the other side, the swordsmanship professor had called Lilica over and was saying with earnest gravity, “Kelly, you are a promising young man. Do not ruin your future over petty romances.”
Lilica looked utterly confused. “Professor, what are you talking about?”
“I mean, the whole business between you and Cynthia,” the professor said, offering an awkward, dry cough. “I’ve heard some talk about it myself.”
Lilica grew even more perplexed. “What business between me and Cynthia?” Kelly’s persona didn’t even have that much interaction with Sister Cynthia, so what could possibly be going on?
“It’s just that.” The professor looked left and right, and upon confirming there was nobody nearby, dropped his voice. “No matter how unreliable Mita is, he is still a prince, the crown prince! Trying to steal his fiancée, have you grown tired of living?”
Lilica fell silent.
Lilica thought to herself: No, wait a minute, Professor, there must be some sort of misunderstanding here.
“What misunderstanding could there be?” the professor scolded, a disapproving look on his face. “Everyone is saying the same thing. Could they all be wrong?”
Lilica thought: What on earth am I supposed to be stealing her with? Am I supposed to compete using the frail, sickly identity of Lilica, or the entirely fabricated identity of Kelly?
Lilica curled her lips, hoisted her greatsword, and turned to leave. “If you have nothing else to attend to, Professor, I’ll go back to instructing the students.”
Though she claimed she was going to instruct her classmates, her gaze inevitably drifted toward Cynthia on the other side of the training ground.
While the professor’s words were mostly utter nonsense, he did get one thing right.
Someone as unreliable as Mita, even if he was a prince, simply didn’t deserve someone as wonderful as Sister Cynthia.
Lilica stepped out and walked toward Cynthia’s side, thinking to herself that she would personally have to vet and select a proper match worthy of Sister Cynthia.
Cynthia was manipulating a dozen fire balls, guiding them as they drifted through midair. Each orb followed a predetermined trajectory, but because there were simply too many, she struggled slightly with the control, making their movement very slow.
After laboriously completing her intended flight path with the fireballs, she hurled the entire cluster toward the training target.
A succession of blasting impacts rang out. Cynthia let out a long breath, wondering if she should try a different approach next time, as this method of control was far too exhausting and produced subpar results.
As she reviewed the shortcomings of her spell execution, she failed to notice that the training target right in front of her was emitting an abnormal cracking sound.
The female classmate who had pushed her into the crowd earlier sensed something was wrong. “Cynthia, look out! That target looks like it’s about to blow up.”
“Boom!” Before the girl could finish her sentence, the training target burst apart violently, its fragments scattering in every direction.
Although Cynthia was standing outside the prescribed safety perimeter, the suddenness of the accident left her with zero time to react.
Just as Cynthia was about to get hurt, a robust figure lunged forward with athletic speed, tackling Cynthia to the ground and shielding her from the flying shrapnel.
Upon tackling her down, the person’s shoulders twitched unnaturally a couple of times before asking, “Cynthia, are you alright?”