Chapter 90

Translator: Kell | Editor: Weasalopes

Claude vs . Ivan

「All right, let’s begin . Ready?」

Claude and Ivan stood five meters apart, facing each other . Ivan had a great sword, while Claude had a one-handed sword with a blade about a meter long . Both were practice swords, but they would still hurt .

「Fight!」

Claude immediately tried to close the distance, thinking Ivan had his guard down with the tip of his sword on the ground .

「Don’t think it’ll go that easy, Claude!」

Ivan quickly raised his sword, flinging sand into Claude’s face . Caught by surprise, the latter closed his eyes .

「Ooooooooohhh!」

Ivan took one step, ready to mow his opponent down with a full swing .

「Block it, Claude! Or you’re dead!」

With two hands on his sword, Claude tried to block the great sword .

「Gwaaahhh?!」

But the force overpowered him, sending him tumbling a few meters away .

「Claude!!」

Luka ran towards him, screaming .

「Stop . Withdraw your sword, Ivan . 」

「O-Okay . 」

Ivan was actually amazed he won in one strike .

「I never even hit Hikaru once . 」

「Maybe you got faster from fighting someone who keeps dodging your attacks left and right?」

「Perhaps . It’s like you were a different Ivan . 」

Ivan and the Jarazack students were talking among themselves .

「Claude! Claude!!」

「I-I’m okay…」

Hands on the ground, Claude staggered as he stood up . Luka had to support him .

「Are you okay?」

「Just a few bruises… I don’t think anything’s broken . 」Claude said, rubbing his arms .

His practice sword itself wasn’t broken . He was sent flying from pure power .

「You’re quite something, Ivan . I didn’t expect you to be this strong . 」

Claude sounded frustrated . Ivan simply cocked his head, puzzled .

「Professor Mikhail is way stronger than me yet Hikaru beat him . 」

「………」

Claude glanced at Hikaru, despair on his face .

「You knew from the start that you couldn’t win if you fought head-on . But you still did it anyway . Reckless . 」Hikaru said .

「I, uhh… That’s true . I thought I could land an attack first if I acted quickly . I just didn’t expect the dust . 」

「Hikaru did that to us . I know how you feel, dude . It startled me as well since it just came out of nowhere . 」

「For sure . 」one of the Ivan’s friends said .

「Yeah, it’s such a dirty move . 」another added .

「What you should’ve done was catch your opponent off guard, but you were the one caught off guard . 」

「Ugh…」

「For the next forty days, you’re going to learn how to create openings like that . There’s no way you can win fair and square . On the thirtieth day, you’ll practice with Professor Mikhail and after that you’ll have to hold your ground once every day . 」

「Can I really win then?」

「Right now you absolutely can’t . We’ll have to increase the weapons in your arsenal . 」

「Weapons…?」

「Yup . Here . Hold this shield . 」

Claude was a surprisingly obedient student . He’d been fighting Ivan and the other Jarazack students with his one-handed, round shield .

At first, Luka was nervous, but soon she got used to it, or perhaps she just gave up and accepted what was going on; she offered ideas like jumping to the opponent’s side or picking up some stones beforehand .

Claude and Ivan’s fights were getting interesting, both of them never letting their guards down .

「Things are looking great . 」Silvester said .

「Great how? Right now he only has a ten percent chance of winning against Professor Mikhail . 」

「That low, huh?」

「He could try to catch the professor off his guard, but I’m sure Mikhail’s instincts can cover for him . 」

「Then this training’s pointless . 」

「There’s a different purpose for this training . 」

「Ahuh… I’m guessing you won’t tell what that is . 」

「Nope . 」

Hikaru’s goal was to make Claude forget about the moves and forms he learned so far . It’s best to learn various ways of fighting . As Claude mentioned, his techniques were more ritualistic . His knowledge and experience were an obstacle for him to improve through his Soul Board .

Claude said his job class was Ordinary One-handed Sword Ritual God: Swordsman of Honor6 . Apparently that was his only sword-related job class . Its name suggested it wasn’t for battle at all .

Ivan’s was Great Sword Mental Frenzy God: Blade Barbarian – a six-character class . It usually appeared to those who were not good with finer sword techniques, but relied on brute force .

The King of Jarazack’s class was Great Sword Truth Seeker God: Blade Seeker – a five-character class that manifested among those who truly mastered the ways of the great sword . A bad match for Claude, however you looked at it .

First he needs to get a good job class . Then we’ll start from there .

Hikaru could only come up with this shortcut because of his ability to tweak Soul Boards . He couldn’t tell Silvester about that, of course . Since Claude trained with Ivan for now, Hikaru had time to do what needed to be done . To persuade the Queen .

Lavia looked dejected when Hikaru told her he would be gone for a few days . But there was nothing he could do about that . If he wanted to go to Forestzard and back quick, it was better to go alone .

His mask looked worn-out after using it too much, so he went to buy a new one in Forestzard’s flea market . The mask was designed to hide his eyes up to the tip of the nose and completely cover only his right cheek . It was a simple silver mark, with some patterns engraved near the edges . An engraver sold it to him, saying a rich merchant asked him to make it .

「Apparently he had a daughter with a burn from her forehead down to her right cheek . Since it was for regular use, he wanted something light and one that would stick to the face with even little mana . So I did . I asked a Magic Item Specialist for help with the magical part, though . Then the guy went bankrupt and I couldn’t sell it . How about it? I’ll sell it to you cheap . 」the man said .

It cost him 500 gilans . When he put it on, he could indeed feel it sticking to his face . Not everyone could use Spirit magic, but every human had mana, if only little . Hikaru liked the simple mask . After wiping it with a cloth, it had a beautiful silver luster .

「You changed your mask . 」Marquedo said with an unpleasant look the moment he visited her office . As always, Zofira was there as well .

「Your Majesty, let’s just give up and let him enter freely . I can only see him as a weird ally who occasionally exterminates pests for us . 」

「You make it sound like I’m some kind of oddball who likes bugs . 」Hikaru said .

「So did you find a spy today?」

「Nope . Looks like you’re doing a good job patrolling the place . 」

「The air here’s better now . It looks awful, though . 」

Zofira eyed the one of the stone pillars . A spy carved out a section of it before and was now replaced with wood . Hikaru could sense mana . There must be some kind of spell cast on it .

「I received a letter from Claude Zahad Kirihal . He was glad I introduced you to him . 」Marquedo said with an unpleasant look, as always .

「Oh? That’s great, then . 」

「What kind of trickery did you pull? I can’t imagine someone from the Zahad family ever thanking me . 」

「Hey, you tried to use me too . Claude was turning into a misfit and you wanted to do something about it . 」

「Oh, so you saw through my plan . 」

「I’m not stupid . 」

Although he only found out after Claude talked to him . In any case, it was clear to Hikaru that he couldn’t use the Queen that easily .

「So why are you here today?」Marquedo asked warily .

How do I put this…

「A matter will be brought up by Silvester G . Zubura on the last day of the Foundation Anniversary and I need you to vote for it . 」