As soon as the signal was given, Jill rushed toward me. In his eyes, an intense fear flared up. His instinct took over his body, and he attacked me without any plan.
He pulled his spear back. Then, suddenly, he thrust it toward me with all his strength while shouting.
"Aaarrghh!!"
His movement was fast, and the spear pierced the wind. Unfortunately, his opponent was me.
"So simple."
I muttered as I raised my sword.
Clang!
The spearhead met with my blade and was deflected. Jill tumbled back from the feedback and lost his balance.
I immediately stepped forward and made a thrust motion. It was a bit awkward because I held a two-handed long sword with only one hand, but I managed to deliver a clean thrust despite it because of my high status.
As my sword sliced the wind, Jill's eyes widened as he shouted.
"I surrender!!"
My sword immediately stopped, just a hairbreadth away from piercing his eyes.
A sound of water pouring could be heard next in the arena that turned silent from surprise. I glanced down and immediately jumped away.
That boy, Jill, had pissed himself in fear!
I realized my mistake and scratched the back of my head.
'Oops.'
That was too much. I pretended not to care about it and raised my sword, smiling and waving at the spectators.
Rania didn't seem to be a referee until at least the top 5 fights. She was already here but was still inside the room.
The fight wasn't that bad yet, but it would gradually become dangerous, so a referee would be needed.
Then I left the arena and put the training sword in its previous place. However, I didn't return to the waiting room. Instead, I went to the balcony belonging to the Royal Academy to ask Alesia about something.
I noticed that the Castitas Academy's balcony was empty too earlier. Sana and Ertha probably were escorting the Pope and would only appear at the top 3 or last fight. They were still in the church.
The King and the Queen would probably arrive at the same time.
As for Duke Blacktomb… I didn't know when he would arrive. According to my radar, he was still in a restaurant together with King Cassius. Naya Blacktomb was nowhere in Academy City.
'Did she return to the Sin Kingdom already?'
That might be the case. Or she could've stayed in another city and had a little adventure with her servants.
'It's not my business. I only have some business with Duke Blacktomb.'
After walking through the corridor to the highest floor of the hall, where the balcony was located, I immediately entered the one reserved for the Royal Academy without knocking.
Alesia was sitting there while drinking a glass of wine with a happy smile.
"Does that pig influence you?" I asked with a playful tone as I sat beside her. "You even drink wine in this kind of situation."
No one would mind me doing this as I would only fight two more times. If they told me not to watch, I would punch them in the face because that would give me the advantage of knowing their skill. For the Goddess' sake, I already gave them the handicap of using only one hand and using no skills.
Honestly, the culprit for that was the elf that sat beside me.
"It doesn't matter. Our victory is guaranteed." Alesia replied after she sipped the wine. Licking her lips, she looked at me. "And I am not influenced. I have loved wine since I was young. You can prepare some if you hold another party for your victory."
This was what she truly wanted to say.
'I love wine and loved the one you gave me that night. So when you win, hold a party and take that wine out for me… Or something like that.'
I smiled at Alesia and chuckled.
"I have no wine anymore. Wait until my engagement, and I will take out the best one in my inventory."
"Hmm, engagement, huh? It can't be helped. So, why are you here instead of in your waiting room?"
"To ask you about something, of course." I shrugged my shoulders.
The fight in the arena continued to the second one. It was between a Temperantia Academy student against a Patientia Academy student. Both of them had swords as their choice of weapon.
Ignoring their funny fight where one stuck the other before the other student repeated it, I relaxed my body and asked.
"Why did you make such a stupid rule?"
"Stupid rule?" Alesia asked back, clearly confused. "If it's about the handicap, I don't think it's stupid at all. Rather, I should also tell you not to scare your opponent like that with your aura."
'Aura?' Now it was me who got confused. But then, I remembered what I did and knew what she was talking about.
In this world where death wasn't the end, and people's souls would only return to the Goddess' side after they had reached their natural lifespan, the term looking for blood or bloodlust wasn't known. In fact, they didn't even fear death. So they got confused when they were faced with an artificial one.
"Are you talking about bloodlust?" I asked to confirm.
Alesia looked at me with eyes full of curiosity. The glass of wine in her hand was put on the table.
Without any choice, I explained bloodlust and its principle to her. She could also send bloodlust to her opponent, but she probably couldn't control it and only did it unconsciously, just like what happened in the Counseling Room at that time.
It still confused her. Only when I explained the concept of being unable to revive and sent an artificial image of permanent death to the enemy did she understand what I was talking about, although she seemed to be slightly confused by it.
"I understand." She nodded. "So you projected the image of not being able to revive again to your opponent. Their natural instinct as living creatures gets worked up, and they become afraid of it. That's the core of your explanation, right? Interesting."
"That's the gist of it. In fact, you once used your bloodlust and projected it to me. I was about to kill you then, but thankfully I was used to being put in it and faced extreme bloodlust from high-Leveled monsters. Compared to that or mine, your bloodlust is child play."
I was talking about Ghost Marionette, which killed all top-rankers in Horizon Online. That monster's bloodlust was unimaginable and even made me freeze for a few seconds when I first faced it.
"It's the first time I heard about it. And this is also the first time someone called what I did child play." Alesia sounded offended, but her smile betrayed her tone. She felt a bit refreshed and enjoyed it.
"I just say that truth." I heaved a sigh and shrugged my shoulders. "Oh, right. I found out about the one who made magic items for the Patientia Academy. It's a second-year student whose name I didn't know yet."
"A student?" The headmistress sounded intrigued. Her expression returned to her stoic one as she fell into deep thought. And then, she nodded slightly and said, "Tell me if you find out more about him."
"I will."
The second fight ended at that moment.
Surprisingly, the Temperantia Academy student won the fight with a close call.
"Nice," Alesia muttered as her mood lifted once again.
Thanks to the pig Earl, I guessed she really disliked those people from Patientia Academy.
There should be more reason behind that, but I wasn't curious enough to ask her.
