"The next match is… Knight Department Lubeth! Magic Department Yuri Cattleya! Step forward!"
Oddman called out the next matchup with a somewhat tense expression.
The one who stepped forward, wooden sword in hand, was Yuri — a classmate, a friend, and one of the few female students present.
Her opponent, meanwhile, was a boy with dull gray hair tied back behind him. Among the Knight Department students, who mostly wore their hair short, he was unusual in that his grown-out bangs hung over his eyes.
"Lubeth… Don't tell me — Wilhelm Lubeth!?"
"You know him, Luido?"
Rest asked after Luido suddenly raised his voice.
Luido stared wide-eyed at the male student who was Yuri's opponent, and explained in a tone tinged with awe.
"Yeah… He was the top admittee in this year's Knight Department. He gave a speech at the opening ceremony too, remember?"
"Now that you mention it… He was there, wasn't he. Come to think of it, yes."
The mud-throwing incident had wiped it from memory, but now that it was mentioned, Yuri did seem to recall one of the students who had stood on the stage at the entrance ceremony.
"Word is, Lubeth passed the practical exam by knocking flat an active-duty knight who was serving as an examiner — with a sword, no less. His hair's long and he looks sloppy, but he's without a doubt the strongest guy in this year's Knight Department."
"And that's who's been matched against Yuri… They're determined to knock her out right here, no matter what…"
Going by the earlier conversation, Oddman — a Knight Department instructor — had clearly received orders from someone and didn't want Yuri anywhere near a sword.
He intended to have her lose this match and bar her from the "Swordsmanship" class for the rest of the term.
(Better be careful… Yuri!)
While Rest silently cheered for his friend's victory, Yuri — now facing her enemy — spoke up in a bright, cheerful tone.
"Oh my, how wonderful. To think I'd get to cross swords with the top admittee of the Knight Department!"
"…………"
"I've never been able to study swordsmanship properly because of my father's teaching methods. So please — I'd very much like to borrow your chest and fight!"
"Borrow… my chest…?"
"That's right. It'll be no burden to you at all. I'm counting on you."
"…………"
Yuri kept talking in her usual unhurried tone, but her opponent Lubeth barely uttered a word.
Was he the quiet type? He sat there with an unreadable expression, saying nothing.
"Then… begin!"
"Ha!"
The moment the match was declared underway, Yuri kicked off the ground and leaped forward.
She raised her sword high overhead, aiming a sweeping overhead strike at her opponent.
"No good…!"
Rest couldn't help but groan.
A wide, telegraphed swing against a superior opponent? That was the move of a complete amateur.
The standard approach in close-quarters combat was to probe with small attacks while reading your opponent's movements, then go for the big strike when an opening appeared.
"…………"
Just as expected.
Lubeth shifted his body ever so slightly, and Yuri's attack sailed past him.
Now, with Yuri wide open in the aftermath of her swing, a counterstrike to finish it off should have been— "…………"
It never came.
Lubeth didn't attack Yuri at all. Without a word, he leaped backward.
"You're not getting away!"
Yuri pursued the retreating Lubeth.
Her slender body darted forward like a young trout leaping upriver, sword swinging as she chased her opponent down.
"Ha! Hmph! Toh!"
"…………"
"Take this! Hit! Hit!"
"Come on… There's your opening!"
"Hiyah! Open wide!"
Yuri was shouting things like "Open wide!" as she swung her sword, but there was no opening at all.
Lubeth sidestepped and deflected each attack with footwork so light and fluid it seemed he could see the future.
"…………?"
"Hey! Who's actually winning this!? Is Yuri at an advantage!?"
Rest squinted in confusion, and Luido responded with a quip before offering an explanation.
"Uh… The one pressing the attack is clearly Yuri. But Yuri isn't at any advantage at all. If anything, she could be beaten at any moment."
"What do you mean?"
"…I don't get it. Why isn't that guy Lubeth counterattacking?"
That was the big question.
There had been at least a dozen opportunities where Lubeth could have landed a counter on Yuri, but he'd passed on every single one.
He'd stare at her intently from behind his bangs, then deliberately look away, then go right back to watching…
He dodged Yuri's attacks with total ease, but hadn't once swung his own sword.
"What are you doing! Lubeth!"
The one growing impatient was the officiator, Oddman.
"Finish her off! What are you fooling around for…!"
There clearly had to be some reason he absolutely needed Yuri to lose, because Oddman had completely forgotten his role as a neutral referee and was shouting at the top of his lungs.
"Tch…"
Under Oddman's orders… Lubeth finally started to swing the sword in his right hand.
"He's coming!?"
Yuri hurriedly gripped her sword with both hands and raised it overhead to block.
It was a bad move. It left her vulnerable to a feint — he could fake high and strike from a different angle.
"…………"
But Lubeth didn't attack.
At the last instant, he halted his blade mid-swing and leaped backward.
"Hm? Not coming?"
Yuri tilted her head.
She'd probably noticed something was off with Lubeth by now.
She stopped attacking and stared intently at her opponent's face — and then: "…………I lose. I surrender."
For whatever reason, Lubeth himself declared defeat.
He tossed aside his wooden sword and strode off the field.
"Wait… I won?"
"Cattleya won? Against Wilhelm Lubeth!?"
"N-No way!? Why is Lubeth losing!?"
The result was so unexpected that confused voices erupted from the Magic Department students.
The Knight Department students were in chaos, too.
"Hey, Lubeth! What the hell is going on!?"
And the most rattled person of all was Oddman.
"I told you to make sure you beat Lady Cattleya! I'm not accepting a surrender!"
"…The match is decided. I lost."
"You haven't taken a single hit! I won't allow it. Do you want to spend the rest of the semester doing nothing but running too!?"
Oddman threatened him, but Lubeth looked at him with complete disinterest and started to walk off, saying, "I don't care. That's that."
"Hold on! I'm not satisfied either!"
Even Yuri — who had supposedly won — closed in on Lubeth.
"If this were a defeat earned through actual combat, I would gladly accept it, but there's no reason for you to hand me a victory for no reason! Stand and fight me again!"
"As if… I'm not fighting you anymore."
"Wait!"
Yuri grabbed the hand of Lubeth as he tried to brush her off and leave.
The instant she did, Lubeth shook off her hand and sprang back with a shudder.
"Wh…?"
"D-D-D-Don't touch me!"
"Hah? What are you talking about?"
"I said don't touch me! Ugh, honestly—!"
Lubeth furiously rubbed his hand on his trousers, as though something filthy had touched him.
It was a wildly over-the-top reaction.
"Hm… My apologies. Was it sweaty or something?"
"That's not the issue at all! Y-You shameless woman!"
"Sh-Shameless?"
"You — during the whole match — you kept shaking your… your b-b-b… your fat, and I couldn't concentrate at all! God, this is exactly why I can't stand women!"
"…………"
The boy who was supposed to be the strongest first-year in the Knight Department was screaming in tears.
Everyone present was dumbfounded, at a complete loss for words.
(Could it be that guy is… absurdly weak around women?)
Whether he hated women, or simply had zero tolerance and was hopelessly shy — it was hard to say, but he might have been spectacularly, catastrophically bad with the opposite sex.
Throughout the match, he'd been trying to deal with the sight of Yuri's chest bouncing in her gym uniform, and that was probably why he'd been on the defensive the whole time, unable to mount a single counter.
"I lose! That's final! I'm never fighting you again!"
With that childlike scream, Lubeth fled the scene.
Even Yuri couldn't bring herself to give chase. She stood there with round eyes, watching her opponent run away.