Chapter - 6

Mage-knights bolstered their country's battle strength, and they naturally sought combat skill. Such skill was needed not just for warfare, but also to oppose terrorist groups and criminal syndicates that abused Blazer powers. For mage-knight training, a number of dome-shaped arenas dotted the Hagun Academy campus. The interior of each dome included a space for combat with a roughly hundred-meter diameter, with audience seats built on a bowl shape around that space.

In the third training arena, Ikki Kurogane and Stella Vermillion stood twenty meters apart with Kurono Shinguuji waiting between them as referee. Above them, twenty or so second- and third-year students who had been training, and many visitors who had heard about a mock battle being suddenly declared in the middle of spring break, fixed their gazes on the field. They were all staring at the supernova who had entered the academy with great fanfare, Stella Vermillion.

「So that girl's the Vermillion's 'Crimson Princess'?」

「A really beautiful girl, huh?」

「Such pretty hair…. It's so wonderful, as if it's actually burning….」

「But who's her opponent?」

「…Wait, isn't that Kurogane, the guy repeating the first year?」

「A repeater? Why's she fighting someone like that? Isn't Stella-san supposed to be an A-Rank prodigy?」

「Dunno… hey, aren't there any second-years who shared classes with him? I wanna know what kind of knight he was.」

「I was in the same class, but because that guy didn't even meet the minimum requirements for combat practice, I haven't really seen him in action before.」

「Forget about advancing years… not rated high enough to even practice? Isn't that just too lame?」

「What the heck, that's boring. Won't the princess kill him instantly?」

Stella laughed sourly as gossip floated down from the audience.

"The more I hear, the more useless you sound. Shouldn't you just stop trying to become a mage-knight and live as a regular citizen?"

"Well, maybe I should, but I won't be sure if I don't fight for it."

"Don't you get it? You'll become my slave if you lose, you know."

"Of course I get it, but that's if I lose. It's fine if I win."

"…Even now, you still intend to beat me?"

"That's why I made the effort to come here."

Ikki returned a troubled but warm smile to Stella's stinging words, but he didn't step back from his starting position. He was already prepared to do this. That, for some reason, greatly irritated Stella.

Effort… was it?

「If I work hard then I can beat talent.」

Stella hated ordinary people who thought like that. Whenever they lose to someone like her, they say,

「I worked hard but still couldn't beat talent.」

As if they were the only ones who put in effort.

As if… I win only by my talent.

It made her angry. Stella hadn't been this strong right from the start. No, she was quite the opposite back then. During her childhood, she didn't have the aptitude needed to even aspire to knighthood. She couldn't control her overwhelming power, and sometimes she even burned her own body. Her father and mother, and everyone around her, thought that she'd never become a knight.

But even so… Stella didn't give up. She knew she had potential. A strong Blazer was crucial for a small state like Vermillion, and just like Samurai Ryouma who led this modest land of the Far East to victory in the Second World War, a strong enough mage-knight empowered his country to negotiate with larger nations as an equal. If she could learn to handle that power, it would become a vital asset for protecting the people of her kingdom, so Stella didn't give up. She continued training no matter how much everyone around her objected. And after three long years, she mastered the Dragon Breath. She was critically injured several times in the process, but even so, she became who she was now by great effort.

That's why I can't stand being dismissed with cheap words like talent or prodigy!

"Now then, we'll start the mock battle. Both sides, materialize your Device in illusionary form."

"Come forth, Intetsu."

"Serve me, Lævateinn."

Stella summoned Lævateinn, the sword shaped from her soul, into a form that deals no physical damage to humans but cleaves away physical stamina and strength directly. And she vowed to the boy in front of her―she'd crush him.

Talent can't be defeated. A prodigy is special.

To erase such self-deception, she'd crush him utterly.

"Alright. Well then, LET'S GET STARTED!"

And so, the fight between a prodigy knight and a failed knight began.