I got into school for nothing - 237
I got into school for nothing (237)
Lesson 46. Union Founding Festival - 4
As the heir of the Ten Great Families was utterly crushed in the blink of an eye, a strange silence descended upon the entire arena.
“Hoo... Hahahaha!”
The one who shattered that silence was none other than Ortima.
To laugh like that even after his ally was brutally defeated, it truly showed that there was no such thing as an alliance between the Ten Great Families—Ban Yuwon felt a strange sense of admiration, yet he remained wary of Ortima. Yet, surprisingly, Ortima did not move to attack him, instead continuing to speak.
“As expected, she never betrays my expectations.”
“Calling her ‘she’ right in front of her face is a bit disgusting, you know.”
“If she had genuinely intended to win this match, that mongrel, she would have attacked me, just like you. But she merely proved herself, then calmly waited. That means...”
Having once again reclaimed control, his artifact, Astraea, composed of 24 metal orbs, was evenly arranged in the air.
Dokgo Yeon had once taken one of them away.... It seemed he had succeeded in reinforcing them.
But what was important now wasn't the number of metal orbs, but the sight they created.
Ortima used the metal orbs to form a flower-shaped constellation in the air.
“She is waiting for my victory. She is waiting for me to crush you and then face her!”
“Oh.”
“...Hah.”
She had already told Ban Yuwon she would leave it to him, so interfering felt awkward. Dokgo Yeon, who had been hesitating, raising and lowering her hand on her sword scabbard, soon shut her eyes tight, then sat down on top of Prominence, resting her chin in her hand.
To Ban Yuwon, it looked like she was signaling for him to just finish things quickly, as she couldn't stand listening anymore, but Ortima, seeing her, merely grinned a deeper smile.
No, really, an heir of the Ten Great Families was being sat on—how could he be smiling while watching that?
“Standing on the same battlefield, I have finally grasped her true feelings. This means my devotion was not without meaning.”
“Self-hypnosis this strong is truly something else...”
Both Ulrike and Ortima were like this. Why did these guys interpret everything exactly as they wished?
Despite knowing full well what they had done in the past, how could they possibly believe that Ban Yuwon or Dokgo Yeon held any positive feelings for them?
“Do you wish to deny it? But that is the truth! Every being has an inherent rank, a qualification, and a suitable partner!”
The reason they could continue such an adorable delusion was probably because—up until now—their thoughts had never gone awry.
The Ten Great Families, the Ten Great Dimensions. A promised future from the moment of birth, inherent mighty power.
With just a subtle hint, anything they found unsightly would vanish from their sight. And anything persistent, they could simply dispose of themselves.
In reality, Ban Yuwon and Dokgo Yeon were the irregulars.
It wasn't arrogance, but in the hundreds, possibly even thousands of years of Union Academy's history, there likely hadn't been anyone like Ban Yuwon's party, displaying achievements that defied their innate dimensional origins.
“A defiant look, I see. You have always been like this. You are certainly qualified to question things. Just as she is special, you too possess a strength that belies your origins.”
They did not recognize their own sins.
To be precise, they likely didn't even know what a sin was.
Because in a world where no one could defy their words, sin simply couldn't exist.
—Buzz, buzz, buzz
The 24 star fragments that had crumbled gracefully in the air now rushed forward, spaced out in time.
Ban Yuwon wielded Collapse, cutting them down one after another, as he walked toward Ortima.
“Quite impressive, but!”
“I see it.”
In a situation where even a single deviation in trajectory would result in dozens of metal orbs embedding themselves in his body in the next instant, crushing his bones and organs.
Ban Yuwon, without an ounce of hesitation, swung his sword in all directions, severing the flow created by the metal orbs.
Ortima, perhaps having learned something from their earlier exchange, moved to disrupt Ban Yuwon’s abilities by introducing time-lags into the things he ‘dominated’—but from the start, any strategic maneuvering was meaningless before the Giwon Sword, which read the flow of all concepts.
He must have realized it himself. Suddenly, Ortima raised one hand and gripped the mana of the entire area in his hand.
“I’ll show you. The limits you are destined to face, the true quality that only the truly noble can possess! I will shatter her delusion and your arrogance!”
Immediately after all the mana siphoned from the entire arena flowed into his artifact.
The metal orbs multiplied.
The metal orbs, instantly increasing to 48 in number, still each held overwhelming mana, solidifying even the air they touched, and pressed in on Ban Yuwon.
Amazingly precise control, lethal power.
But what was even more terrifying was Ortima's continued presence, with ample remaining Domination power, which allowed him to manipulate his surroundings at any moment.
Any mana-sensitive races present would have already suffered considerable damage the moment Ortima began to manipulate mana so freely.
—Clang!
A sword suddenly appeared in the air—one of Stormrain Sword's twenty-five rain streaks deflected three orbs simultaneously.
Then another, and another.
As a dozen more rain streaks instantly appeared, moving according to Ban Yuwon's will and batting away the metal orbs, Ortima gnashed his teeth.
“You...!”
“How’s that? I’m pretty good, aren’t I?”
Ortima probably knew of the Stormrain Sword's existence.
But judging by his actions and thought patterns so far, he must have considered it inferior to his own.
That was why he was provoked by seeing one sword deflect multiple orbs.
“How dare you try to imitate me right in front of me!”
“Hah...!”
His attempt to exert Domination and seize control of the Stormrain Sword was also within Ban Yuwon's expectations.
It was, in fact, quite threatening.
The moment he faltered, he would lose control of the Stormrain Sword and hand another weapon over to Ortima. While fully deploying the Giwon Sword, Ban Yuwon focused on amplifying his resonance with the Stormrain Sword to repel Ortima's Domination.
‘The Stormrain Sword was powerful, but difficult to wield freely. Not just in how it dispersed his mental energy, but also because opponents like Ortima, who could interfere with its control, might appear at any time.’
That was why he had deliberately brought out the Stormrain Sword this time.
In truth, if he utilized all his abilities, he could have finished Ortima off in an instant.
But he didn't.
Ortima, perhaps due to his innate pride, hadn't been fighting at full strength until now, and Ban Yuwon believed he could develop his ability to wield the Stormrain Sword by directly contending with Ortima's Domination power.
‘Hoo, indeed... This is good.’
Ban Yuwon was already skilled at handling the Stormrain Sword, but a true master's control was on another level.
The ‘imbuement’ of powerful force, the ‘will’ to move multiple orbs simultaneously, the ‘directionality’ granted to each of them, and the ‘control’ of his body to move in sync with them.
By reading the flow of all these concepts and rapidly learning them, Ban Yuwon further developed his combat style using the Stormrain Sword.
The speed at which Ban Yuwon learned from his opponent’s movements and applied them to himself was such that even Dokgo Yeon was astonished.
The situation, which had seemed disadvantageous when they first clashed, had now become an even match.
“Truly astonishing.”
“To contend equally with the Ortima family’s Domination ability...”
“Could he possibly be vying for control over Domination? How?”
“What exactly is that guy’s true ability? It’s similar to Codeword, but definitely not that!”
“Haha, it’s flashy, I like it!”
Within the not-so-spacious arena, the Stormrain Sword and the metal orbs raced, drawing countless trajectories.
They moved so fast that those with inferior skill couldn’t even read their movements, yet each collision simultaneously held terrifying thermal energy.
Ortima's ability to manipulate the metal orbs while simultaneously transforming the surrounding mana into pressure to push Ban Yuwon back, and exerting Domination to snatch the Stormrain Sword was truly formidable. Yet, Ban Yuwon’s ability to block and counter those countless attacks with the Executioner's Longsword in his hand and the ten rain streaks flying through the air was no less impressive.
No... The metal orbs were gradually losing ground, and the rain streaks’ territory began to expand.
“You... you...!”
In the arena, where the constant, intense clashes of metal made even shouts difficult to discern, a faintly trembling voice was quietly uttered.
Having finally realized that Ban Yuwon was observing and learning from his movements, Lusein Ortima, in extreme fury, raised both hands.
“Show me just how much you can imitate!”
Mana exploded.
Where had it been hidden? Seeing the intensely compressed mana surge from Ortima’s hand, Ban Yuwon could only think that.
He was probably using his Domination to routinely collect mana and conceal it by some means. In this tournament, where artifacts were permitted, even that wasn't cheating.
The problem was the metal orbs that now began to endlessly multiply due to that mana.
Seeing the countless metal orbs that instantly filled the arena and crowded his vision, Ban Yuwon clicked his tongue, wondering if Astraea should be renamed the Milky Way at this point.
“You’ve learned well, but it seems this is your limit.”
“Die!”
Killing during the tournament should be prohibited, though.
Ortima uttered vicious words without hesitation, and unleashed his abilities.
Hundreds, even more, in number. Reading each trajectory and severing it individually felt foolish.
Ban Yuwon released the remaining fifteen Stormrain Swords into the space.
“Huh?”
Ortima apparently didn’t know that the Stormrain Sword consisted of a total of twenty-five rain streaks.
And, as an added bonus, he also didn’t know... that all these rain streaks were resonating strongly with the Executioner's Longsword.
“—Haaah!”
The rain streaks that had spread throughout the arena, following the movements of the Executioner's Longsword, which was swung with Ban Yuwon's shout, slashed down through space.
—Shhhk
All at once, they unleashed a severing slash of Collapse.
Whether metal orbs or mana, Ortima’s Domination exerted over all of them was severed strand by strand.
“...Huh?”
Then, silence descended.
This time, Ortima could not revive his Domination as if nothing had happened.
“My only regret was how small the arena was.”
“You—!”
Even amidst this, Ortima's movements and judgment were not bad; he quickly drew up mana, moving to bring the closest rain streak under his control.
He also activated an option on the artifact he was wearing, forming a defense comparable to Ban Yuwon's ‘Adamantine’ concept.
“Keuk?! How... how could you reject my Domination?!”
“It’s because they’re resonating. To dominate them, you would have to dominate me, and all twenty-five Stormrain Swords, simultaneously.”
“What...?”
What was bad, on the other hand, was that he still hadn't grasped the true nature of Ban Yuwon’s abilities.
Well, accurately pinpointing Ban Yuwon’s ability to instantly create any concept he wished was an impossible task to begin with.
No, and one more thing.
“You might not know your sins, but I do.”
The concept he gained from eating the Fruit of Good and Evil in Eden: Judgment.
The scope of this concept’s application was very clear: it applied when Ban Yuwon targeted a sinner whose crime he had clearly recognized with his own two eyes.
In truth, this condition was harder to meet than one might think, so he rarely used it effectively. But conversely, in cases where the distinction was clear, it was a terrifying concept capable of orchestrating a grand comeback, even if the opponent was a Constellation.
‘Imbue the Executioner's Longsword with Judgment, and resonate with the Stormrain Sword.’
And now, at this very moment, facing Ortima, who had audaciously committed crimes against countless individuals, including Ban Yuwon and Dokgo Yeon, yet walked around brazenly, pretending to be unrelated and free of malice.
“Accept it fully.”
“Wait...!”
The resonance of concepts infused into the twenty-five Stormrain Swords unequivocally judged him.
Ortima, still feeling the power of Collapse permeating the entire arena, reached out his hand to the floor as a last resort, causing a defensive wall, shockingly composed of the academy's very buildings, to surge forth. Yet, even so, he could not block the Stormrain Sword's unified attack.
Professor Zenon, thinking he might actually kill Ortima, rushed in anxiously, but Ban Yuwon pierced through all of Ortima's defensive walls and stopped his attack once Ortima's consciousness was obliterated.
Zenon, who had even been prepared to nullify Ortima’s artifact if necessary, stared at the instantly and cleanly concluded scene, and found himself uncharacteristically astonished.
“That level of control must have been difficult to achieve.”
“I guess I grew during the match.”
“Hmph, to turn everything upside down like that.”
Dokgo Yeon, who had been watching and then suddenly got caught in the crossfire for no reason, brushed off her clothes and landed next to Ban Yuwon.
Zenon wore an indescribable expression as he looked at the two, but thankfully, he regained his composure before his reputation as Vice-Chancellor was completely ruined, and declared Ban Yuwon’s pair the winners.
“The ‘Wish Granting Right’ will be exercised in the arena after all special matches have concluded. Please gather there at that time. Ah, Ban Yuwon, please prepare for your second special match.”
“Understood.”
Ban Yuwon’s pair turned to leave, wearing relieved expressions.
Zenon first rescued the unconscious Ortima and Prominence pair, then, while in the middle of restoring the chaotic arena to its original state, he tilted his head.
“Hmm... it feels like something is missing.”
Since the entire arena had been turned upside down, it wouldn’t be strange for something to have gone missing.
Whoever enters Union Academy must take responsibility for all their actions.
As he deftly tidied up the arena, Ban Yuwon and Dokgo Yeon had already retreated to the spectator stands. But just as they were catching their breath and thinking of getting something to drink, Dokgo Yeon poked his arm.
“Hmm? What’s wrong, Yeon?”
“It’s a present.”
Ban Yuwon unthinkingly held out his hand, and Dokgo Yeon poured twenty-four metal orbs onto it.
“It was hard gathering them so quickly.”
“...”
“Won, are you happy?”
“Yeah... thank you.”
“That’s good to hear. My efforts were worth it.”
Dokgo Yeon, inwardly pleased, wore a faint smile.
Ban Yuwon, faster than anyone, extracted concepts from them and smiled back at her.
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