The Red-haired Girl gripped her Wooden Sword, pointing it straight at Rosily.
After her voice rang out, all eyes turned to her.
Almost everyone present glanced over; everyone knew about Yelena picking on the transfer student, so now all attention was on the atmosphere between the two.
Facing these stares, Yelena chose to lift her proud chin and continued speaking.
“Do you dare to try me?”
Elqi reacted quickly, hurrying to block Rosily, frowning as she spoke to Yelena, “Yelena, why do you keep pestering Rosily?”
Usually, Yelena was just a bit withdrawn and didn’t like talking to people, but ever since Rosily arrived today, it was as if she’d eaten something to make her so irritable.
What exactly was going on?
Rosily quietly looked at Yelena, showing no hint of anger, but instead calmly stepped out from behind Elqi. Facing Yelena’s aggressive stance, she replied with ease,
“Since you insist on challenging me, I’ll accept.”
“Hmph!”
Yelena snorted lightly, saying arrogantly,
“I’m not bullying you. I won’t use magic against you.”
“Oh.”
Rosily replied indifferently.
Behind her, Elqi’s brows furrowed even deeper.
She grabbed Rosily’s hand, looking at her with concern.
Yelena was already at Second Tier in magic, while Rosily hadn’t even begun to cultivate.
Even if Yelena didn’t use magic and only fought with Swordsmanship, reaching Second Tier greatly enhanced the body!
No matter how you looked at it, this didn’t seem like a fair match.
But neither of the two showed any sign of backing down…
Rosily turned and gave Elqi a reassuring smile, telling her not to worry.
Although she hadn’t cultivated magic, nor had she formally trained in Swordsmanship,
If it was just a Wooden Sword duel, she didn’t think she’d lose.
When bored at home, Rosily often picked up straight branches to use as swords, mimicking the sword moves Henna had once demonstrated before her.
She had plenty of imaginary training experience.
A dozen or so students also stopped their half-hearted sword practice to watch the lively scene up close.
In the distance, the Swordsmanship Class teacher peeked over, saw it was just two little girls pulling at each other, and, thinking it was nothing interesting, lay back down.
Suddenly, he sat up again, watching the clash of auras between the two girls with genuine interest.
Occasionally, watching hair-pulling matches was quite nice, too.
The training ground was a neat square, over a hundred meters long and wide.
The surrounding students didn’t think it was a big deal and simply backed off five or six meters to watch.
Rosily and Yelena each held their Wooden Swords, facing off.
Yelena gripped her sword with both hands, her posture and stance already adjusted.
With a single burst of strength, she could charge at Rosily; just by her stance, she looked very professional.
In contrast, Rosily still held the Wooden Sword with one hand, her feet not adjusted, simply standing together.
The girl’s posture was elegant—her stance looked beautiful, but her Swordsmanship seemed amateurish.
From the stands, a few boys emerged, each carrying a longsword.
Two tall ones walked in front, one with black hair, the other brown.
Behind them followed several other young people in school uniforms, each bearing the Three Stars insignia, marking them as upperclassmen.
As soon as they stepped out, they were drawn to the commotion on the field.
The brown-haired boy turned to the black-haired boy beside him and joked,
“Looks like someone’s here. Let’s pick another day.”
“That’s…”
The black-haired boy squinted at the wine-red figure on the field.
Seeing his interest piqued, the brown-haired boy said,
“Looks like they’re about to fight. Want to make a bet?”
The black-haired boy turned to him, neither nodding nor refusing, just watching quietly.
The brown-haired boy leaned on the railing, glanced at Elqi among the crowd, then turned back to the black-haired boy.
“That girl with the pale gold hair, I think her name is Rosily. She’s a new student who joined today. Supposedly, she’s never cultivated before and doesn’t even know the basics.”
“As for the other, you know her too—Yelena. Pretty famous, Second Tier in magic, specializes in Swordsmanship.”
“So, I’m betting on the girl named Rosily to win.”
The black-haired boy looked at him in surprise.
The brown-haired boy smiled and explained,
“If she dared to accept, she must have some confidence in winning. I want to see how she’ll do it. So, what do you say, little Kost, are you betting or not?”
Kost was the black-haired boy’s surname. He narrowed his eyes, watching the two facing off on the field, and spoke calmly,
“One hundred gold?”
“One hundred gold!”
The brown-haired boy burst out laughing and turned to the others behind them.
“Bet or not? Here’s your chance to win a hundred gold. Do you dare take it?”
The others looked at each other, then all turned to the black-haired boy. One of them, after some hesitation, followed their leader, and the rest quickly joined in.
Yelena had no idea she had become the center of everyone’s expectations.
She focused on Rosily. Seeing that Rosily wasn’t attacking, she gently shifted her back foot, staring straight into Rosily’s eyes.
A breath later, she exploded with astonishing speed.
The Wooden Sword sliced through the air, aiming straight for Rosily’s shoulder. It all happened so fast an ordinary person couldn’t react.
Yelena thought she could end it in one move.
Just a girl who’s never cultivated or learned Swordsmanship!
But to her surprise, Rosily dodged—just barely. Yelena had no time to be shocked; she immediately halted, lifting her missed sword.
Another strike, but again she hit nothing but air!
Rosily deftly sidestepped both of Yelena’s attempts to settle the match quickly with speed and strength.
Yelena kept pressing the attack, but Rosily kept dodging and weaving.
The chase quickly made the circle of onlookers too small, so the crowd hurriedly backed away, afraid of being caught in the fight.
Yelena’s attacks were either dodged or blocked by Rosily, who kept retreating without counterattacking, which infuriated Yelena.
“Don’t you dare fight back? All you do is dodge—what’s the point!”
Unfortunately, words couldn’t provoke Rosily now.
Rosily ignored Yelena’s voice.
In her eyes, there was a faint ripple around Yelena. Everyone in the school had it, which she found odd, as her mother did not.
What were those ripples?
She felt Yelena’s movements were slow, far from quick, her strength lacking, very different from what she’d seen when Henna performed those moves.
After dodging another attack, Rosily glanced at the sky.
The endless blue reminded her of the feeling of the wind on her skin when she woke up that day, and the sensation of vaulting over the stone fence in the yard…
For now, she didn’t know how to put those feelings into words.
She suddenly had the strange thought that her five human senses were like shackles trapping her.
Yelena took Rosily’s distraction as an opening and burst forth with a strength that belied her slender frame, thrusting straight at Rosily’s heart. The onlookers gasped.
If that hit, at least a rib would break!
Elqi, off to the side, gripped her magic staff and began chanting, ready to save Rosily.
But unexpectedly, Rosily’s Wooden Sword flicked Yelena’s sword tip upward. Blade slid along blade, and what should have been a deadly thrust at her heart just grazed her shoulder.
The two girls’ Wooden Swords pressed together, their gazes separated by less than ten centimeters.
Yelena was shocked to discover that Rosily was actually smiling.
But she… how could she be smiling?