Demon King of the Royal Class

Chapter 293 [Illustration]

“Reinhart? I heard he’s a superhuman.”

“That’s cheating!” Richard Haulman shouted.

“Are you yelling at me?”

“N-No. I mean... I’m sorry.” He shrank back, bowing his head.

He was furious at having failed to win a single set in the quarterfinals. He had already sensed his defeat when he saw his opponent use Mana Reinforcement in the Round of 32.

But his opponent hadn’t even used that against him.

He had been overwhelmed by some strange force which had created unintended openings that ultimately led to his defeat.

The lack of information about his opponent going into the match was also a mistake on his part.

So he did his investigations afterward and found out that Reinhart was a superhuman.

That was unfair.

Why should he, who had trained honestly and diligently, lose to something so absurd and unreasonable as a superpower?

Richard Haulman gritted his teeth, eyes wide with anger.

If it hadn’t been for the supernatural power, he would have won. He could have crushed him. But such excuses were useless.

Richard Haulman was currently in the dormitory of one of the general classes, Irazon Class.

His classmates and some other seniors of his class were gathered there.

Even though this was the Temple, it was festival time, and so things were a little more relaxed. As a result, they were gathered in one of the dorm rooms, having a drinking party.

This wasn’t a Royal Class dorm room so it was lacking in several ways, but this was still the Temple, so it wasn’t overly cramped.

The students in the room did not seem like the sort who diligently followed the Temple’s lifestyle.

A senior, who seemed to be the leader of the group, filled Richard Haulman’s glass with soju. Richard, who had almost been the hero of the day but ended up as the loser because of the variable named Reinhart, accepted the drink.

Glug, glug, glug.

“Anyway, you have to keep your promise, right?”

“Oh, a-are you talking about that promise...?”

“You said if you didn’t make it to the semifinals, you’d enter the cross-dressing contest, remember?”

There was a reason why the cross-dressing contest always had a peculiar appeal.

It was because students often used it as a sort of forfeit or punishment among themselves. They would make bets or duel among themselves in a group, and the loser would be forced into doing something humiliating and mocked by everyone. This was why there were always plenty of participants in the cross-dressing contest.

There were those who were being mocked, and those who mocked them...

Participants in the cross-dressing contest were often forced to enter in this manner.

Not long ago, Richard Haulman, brimming with confidence, had accepted a bet from his senior.

Of course, he hadn’t anticipated things turning out this way.

Pride always came before a fall.

Richard Haulman’s face turned pale.

“N-No! Why should I do that?”

“I said I’d enter the cross-dressing contest if you made it to the semifinals, didn’t I? And you agreed to the opposite. Hey, did anyone here not hear that? Raise your hand if you didn’t.”

Everyone around them struggled to hold back their laughter.

Even though Richard Haulman had a terrible personality, he didn’t have the guts to mess with a senior. However, he was the type who would punch anyone who laughed at him in the face.

“S-Senior, I’ll do anything else, but please, not that...”

“Enter the cross-dressing contest. That’s all I want from you, you bastard.”

The senior downed his soju in one gulp and exhaled with a satisfied “Ahh.”

While Richard was still at a loss for words, one of the first-year students who had been sipping soju cautiously muttered, “But, isn’t the registration period for that contest over?”

Richard’s face momentarily brightened.

“Did you think I wouldn’t look into that?” the senior retorted. “You can register up to an hour before the contest.”

There was no escape. The senior chuckled, and the other seniors also seemed to be enjoying themselves, already imagining the two-meter-tall human tank in a dress.

“Man, if you had won, it would’ve been a disaster! I was really ready to enter, you know that?”

The seniors had known from the start that it was impossible for a student from the general cohort to make it to the semifinals in a tournament in which special class students were bound to participate.

‘Reinhart... that damn cheating bastard!’ Richard Haulman thought.

His heart burned with hatred for Reinhart, but he had no idea that he would meet him again in a few days.

***

It was Tuesday, the second day of the festival.

The day of the finals for the grade-level tournaments, starting with the first-year matches.

Although the quarterfinals had been held the previous day, it was time for the real highlight. The crowd was much larger than the day before, and the stadium was literally bursting at the seams.

The others had left me alone, perhaps to avoid distracting me, but they were all somewhere in the audience. Both Scarlett and Ludwig had advanced into the semifinals as well, and so the entire first-year Royal Class would be seated in the audience, just like yesterday.

Ultimately, both the Royal Class and the Orbis Class were products of elitism. The fact that no one from the general cohort classes had made it to the semifinals suggested that such elitism was justified.

I wasn’t sure about that.

It was highly likely that I would face Gladen Amorel in the finals. Ludwig seemed to have made some sort of resolution, but turning willpower into actual strength was only limited to special cases like me.

If I had to use Mana Reinforcement to beat Scarlett, then I would also have to use it against Gladen Amorel in the finals.

Given my susceptibility to wearing out after consecutive battles, this was the worst-case scenario for me. If I were to lose consciousness, I would be disqualified.

I couldn’t afford to push myself too hard. This tournament was ultimately a means to earn Achievement Points, and it was all about becoming stronger.

It would be a disaster if I suffered permanent internal injuries while trying to earn those points.

The situation did not favor me. I wielded a powerful weapon, but it was a double-edged sword. If I used it incorrectly, I could lose the championship and suffer internal injuries.

These were my thoughts going into the first match of the tournament semifinals.

—The semifinal match between Reinhart of the Royal Class and Scarlett of the Royal Class begins now!

—Woohoo!

I stood opposite a girl with flaming red hair and red eyes, surrounded by the cheers of the crowd.

Her weapon was a longsword similar to mine. However, while her blade was slightly shorter and lighter, the difference in reach was not significant.

Although I hadn’t practiced with Scarlett often, we had been in the same swordsmanship classes that semester and sparred quite a bit.

Scarlett was fast and agile, employing a swordsmanship style based on excellent reflexes. She did not lock blades and try to gain the advantage through pushing, but instead deflected her opponent’s blade with skillful maneuvers and relied on quick changes to the trajectory of her sword to exploit openings.

She attacked by predicting the opponent’s movements and countering it with solid fundamentals.

Fundamentals... That was something I lacked.

Ellen had taught me the key points and summarized them for me, so it wasn’t as if I knew nothing, but I hadn’t built it up from the ground.

I was analogous to a student who had only learned how to solve problems. I had learned conclusions, but did not have a solid grasp of the underlying theories.

On the other hand, Scarlett had a perfect understanding of those theories, and could understand all the problems that were derived from those theories.

It was a matter of the absolute difference in time invested in swordsmanship. I was someone who shouldn’t have been standing in the arena at all.

If it hadn’t been for Ellen, my supernatural power, or my ability to activate Mana Reinforcement, I wouldn’t be here.

Whatever the case, I was where I was, and I had to face Scarlett, who had an overwhelming advantage in actual skill.

Scarlett, one of the two main heroines in the original story, had been ostracized and considered a bad omen. At this point, though, much of her lack of confidence had disappeared.

In the original story, Ludwig was the catalyst for that, but in this timeline, it was Charlotte who had guided Scarlett onto her path.

The red-haired girl looked at me.

“Reinhart,” Scarlett said before making a move.

“... Yeah?”

The audience couldn’t hear our conversation.

“You are my idol.”

“... What?”

I couldn’t help but be taken aback by the unexpected statement, although I could understand why she said it.

Scarlett and I had a shared background; we both came from the streets.

“I was afraid of being expelled from the Temple, but you always seemed so confident, as if none of that mattered.”

Scarlett had been present when I dueled with Mayaton, the third-year student.

At that time, I had no connection or relationship with Scarlett.

That duel had been held in the Class A dormitory’s training grounds. At that time, Scarlett, who was still being bullied, had stayed to watch my duel despite Erhi’s hints for her to leave.

Since then, I hadn’t had much interaction with Scarlett, but I knew her view of me was rather favorable.

When I was injured, she had come to visit, and we chatted briefly.

She did not like me in a romantic sense; it felt different. Whenever we passed by each other and exchanged small, trivial conversations, I sensed that there was something else Scarlett was trying to show.

Was that what she meant by calling me her idol?

“Watching you made me realize something,” she continued. “I wasn’t weak because of my background; I was just weak because I was weak.

“I saw that it was possible to be like you, to live like you, and not get expelled. No, even if I were expelled, it wouldn’t matter.

“Not everyone likes you. But not everyone hates you either.

“There’s something to be gained by living life confidently. It’s okay to live that way, even if you earn the hatred of many, even if the way you live your life makes everyone hate you. Because not everyone will hate you. Some will still like you.

“I realized that just as it’s impossible to make everyone like me, it’s also impossible to make everyone hate me. I learned that from watching you.

“Ever since I saw you, I’ve been trying to change. I can’t change completely, but I’m trying to change little by little. Because if you could do it, then I could do it too, or so I thought. I thought I had to.”

I had thought it was Charlotte who had changed Scarlett.

But it wasn’t.

Even though Scarlett and I had no direct connection, she had realized from watching me that it was okay to live like me.

Therefore, she had begun to change herself. Scarlett, who was supposed to participate in the Miss Temple contest, was now competing in the first-year tournament.

As with Ellen, she was trying to prove something, in her own way.

Scarlett was trying to prove something.

“I’m sorry. This isn’t the place for a conversation, but I had to say it.”

I realized that Scarlett wasn’t participating in the tournament just to compete; she was doing it to face me in this arena.

“I consider it an honor to be your opponent,” she said.

Unbeknownst to me, I had become Scarlett’s idol.

Scarlett pointed her sword at me.

Her eyes, which had been gentle so far, turned serious, and her expression hardened.

“I will give it my all,” she said.

As the audience, who had been murmuring due to the prolonged prelude, fell silent again, Scarlett took a step forward.

The determination in Scarlett’s stance was different from anything I had seen before. It was different from our practice duels.

This was the main stadium. A place where you could attack with the intent to kill. A place where you could pour everything you had into defeating your opponent.

“Because that’s the respect I owe you.”

Scarlett... The crimson girl charged at me.

As she rushed towards me, her red eyes seemed to trace a path through the air, bearing down on me.

Clang!

“Ugh!”

Her blow landed with incredible force, and I felt a sudden and unfamiliar sensation.

Self-Deception was not activating.

“Supernatural powers are useless against me.”

Scarlett wasn’t a superhuman.

But she couldn’t be considered a non-superhuman either, since her talent undoubtedly had some connection to supernatural powers.

Scarlett, the Crimson Swordswoman...

Her talent was Immunity.

In the original story, her moniker was Spellbreaker.

Neither magic nor supernatural powers worked on her.

***

Scarlett’s nickname, “Witch”, was nonsensical from the start.

Scarlett could withstand all kinds of mental and offensive magic without harm.

She nullified all supernatural powers as well.

To give someone with such extreme resistance to magic the nickname “Witch” was absurd.

Of course, she wasn’t completely immune to all magic. If she were, the stadium’s barriers and summoning devices would not work on her.

Her resistance to magic could be controlled, and when pushed to the extreme, it became immunity.

Magic Resistance was a real trait and could be trained.

However, in this world, only two people had resistance to supernatural powers.

One was Ellen Artorius, who had resistance to supernatural abilities, and the other was Scarlett. Scarlett’s resistance was overwhelmingly superior.

Scarlett’s talent did not grow, since she was already practically immune to supernatural powers and magic.

That was how I’d set it up.

Despite this, she had clearly grown.

I put some distance between me and Scarlett with a grave expression.

Self-Deception was a power that affected me, not others.

Yet, the fact that Self-Deception—which was a self-buff and not an offensive ability aimed at Scarlett—failed to activate meant that Scarlett’s nullification of supernatural powers extended to envelop an area around her.

No matter how high one’s Magic Resistance was, it was only protective against spells cast on oneself and could not block spells that were cast on the ground.

However, Scarlett could now influence supernatural powers in her vicinity. Whether this extended to magic, I did not know, but it was clear she could nullify my Self-Deception.

Scarlett’s talent had advanced beyond its original form in the original story, and I was probably the reason for it.

I did not know how exactly I had influenced her, but Scarlett had undoubtedly changed.

She wasn’t just sparring with me as usual; she was using her Talent to try to defeat me.

Was this what she meant by giving it her all?

Had she refrained from using this ability in our practice duels out of respect for me?

Clang! Clang! Clack!

My supernatural power was sealed.

“Mana Reinforcement, too. You can’t use it without the aid of your supernatural power.”

Clang!

“Ugh!”

Mana Reinforcement, which I required the aid of Self-Deception to activate, was also out of my reach.

Neither Gladen Amorel nor Ludwig was my true nemesis. It was Scarlett.

In this arena, Scarlett’s talent was useless against anyone else; it only worked against me.

She might lose to Gladen Amorel, and I might defeat Gladen Amorel. Against me, though, Scarlett held an overwhelming advantage.

Clang! Clang! Clack!

I retreated, barely managing to deflect Scarlett’s relentless strikes. This wasn’t due to the fundamentals I had learned and built upon, but muscle memory of countless mistakes and corrections.

I had to defeat Scarlett with just pure skill.

But was that even possible?

The time she had invested in honing her abilities far outweighed mine, even if the quality of our training differed.

Self-Deception had become a part of me. Now, in the midst of battle, with it gone, I felt as if I had lost an arm and a leg.

When I had access to it, I had used it as though it were a natural part of my own body, and hadn’t realized its importance. Now that it had been nullified, I felt an overwhelming sense of powerlessness and emptiness.

Self-Deception was the core of my strength.

‘Am I really this inadequate without my supernatural power?’

Clang!

Scarlett knocked my sword upward and twisted her blade, slashing towards my neck.

“Ugh!”

Thud!

Summoning magic...

—Royal Class Scarlett takes the first bout!

I had lost the first bout.