Tap-tap-
When she lightly tapped her shoe on the smooth marble floor instead of the rough dirt ground, Rosaria felt the hard, firm texture through her footwear.
“Now, before we begin the duel, let me explain a few important rules.”
“Um, not to be rude, but isn’t it the teacher’s job to stop students from getting carried away like this?”
Standing between Letton and Rosaria, Gutton began explaining the safety precautions for the duel. Rosaria, however, looked at him with mild irritation as she posed her question.
Rosaria had been driven to anger by Letton’s relentless provocation and issued a challenge…though it was more of a taunt than a formal request for a duel.
Normally, Rosaria preferred to keep a low profile and simply get through her school days peacefully, but Letton’s blatant antics pushed her to teach him a lesson.
Still, Rosaria found it absurd.
She couldn’t believe that the instructor, instead of diffusing the situation, had brought them to the dueling grounds and even gathered other students to spectate.
To make matters worse, this was their very first class.
“Isn’t it faster to settle grievances with fists? Personally, I’m all for it,” Gutton said, scratching his head with a sheepish smile in response to Rosaria’s question.
But Gutton wasn’t acting thoughtlessly. As a teacher in a combat-oriented discipline, he knew the value of establishing a clear hierarchy early on.
Once such a system was in place, managing the class would be easier. Besides, trying to intervene would only paint him as a coward hiding behind his title as a professor.
“In my mercenary days, when someone got in the way, you’d just draw your sword first… Ah, those were the days…”
It wasn’t as though Gutton was excited to see rookies brawl ferociously, leaving with broken noses and cracked bones. Absolutely not.
‘…He’s insane.’
Watching Gutton’s lips twitch in a poorly concealed smile, Rosaria couldn’t help but sigh in exhaustion.
“What’s the matter, miss? Getting scared already?”
Letton, emboldened by Rosaria’s earlier question, took the opportunity to taunt her with a sneer. He had convinced himself that she was frightened.
“Did you think, ‘If I push hard enough, Professor Gutton will intervene and stop this’? Why don’t you just apologize and beg for forgiveness now? Who knows? I might be generous enough to let you go.”
“…Who’s that dog barking over there?”
“…Ha! Fine, so you’re going all the way with this?”
Letton, assuming victory was already his, pretended to offer her mercy one last time.
However, Rosaria responded with a scowl and a dismissive motion, twisting her finger in her ear as if to mock him. Letton’s smug grin faded into a hollow chuckle as his shoulders slumped.
“Weapons are prohibited. No striking vital points…”
“What’ll you do without that staff you’re always carrying? Were you relying on that?”
“If you get hit by it, you’ll really die, though.”
“…?”
When Letton mocked her staff, Rosaria muttered under her breath.
It wasn’t as if pulling out a gun or using lethal force in a duel like this would do her any good. Besides, no matter how angry she was, she wasn’t about to blow a hole through the head of a fellow student in broad daylight.
“….Well, those are the standard warnings… Anyway, just don’t kill each other. Anything short of that is fine.”
As Gutton finished listing the rules about what not to do during the duel, he suddenly contradicted himself with a smile that negated everything he’d just said.
To Rosaria, it was obvious—this man wasn’t concerned about the students’ well-being. He was clearly thrilled by the unfolding chaos.
“Why don’t you surrender now? I don’t make it a habit to hit women.”
“Oh, really? So, you’re saying all the other female combat students here aren’t worth your time? That they’re not even worth fighting?”
“What…?”
Rule #1 of winning a battle of wits, seize on your opponent’s words and turn them against them. As Rosaria executed this flawlessly, Letton visibly faltered.
Though Rosaria tried to maintain a normal demeanor to distance herself from her rather infamous family, she was still very much a member of the Evergarden clan—a fact she was now demonstrating with relish.
“Wow, what a sexist. I can’t believe you’d insult Skitia Academy, a place that prides itself on fairness. How did a chauvinist like you even get admitted? Unbelievable.”
“N-no, that’s not what I meant…! Ugh, fine! Let’s do this!”
“Alright then, you filthy male supremacist. Let me teach you a thing or two about gender equality—with my fists!”
Realizing he’d been played, Letton’s face twisted in genuine anger. Tightening the bandages on his fists, he stepped into position, as Rosaria mirrored his energy, readying her stance.
“Alright… begin!”
With that, Gutton stepped back, and the duel officially started.
“I didn’t think you’d get me this angry. You’d better be ready,” Letton growled.
“You do realize that’s the kind of line people use when they’ve got nothing to back it up, right?” Rosaria quipped, her voice dripping with mockery.
“…Hah, hngh…!”
Letton inhaled sharply, crouching low before launching himself forward in a burst of speed.
‘Oh… not bad?’
At the start of the duel, the two had stood about 7 meters apart, but Letton closed the gap almost instantly, weaving into Rosaria’s side and aiming a clenched fist at her face.
‘I’ll ruin that pretty face of hers…!’
Letton normally wouldn’t resort to targeting someone’s face, especially a girl’s, but he was too far gone to care now. He had resolved to end it with this single punch.
‘This is it!’
As his fist arced upward, aiming squarely at Rosaria’s sharp nose, he felt certain of victory. A single blow was all it would take to seal the duel in his favor.
However—
Swoosh.
“…Huh?”
In the split second before his fist connected, Rosaria’s head tilted ever so slightly to the side, causing his attack to miss entirely. His knuckles grazed nothing but air, leaving him stunned.
Whoosh!
The force of his punch created a gust of wind that sent Rosaria’s long hair fluttering behind her.
“Wow, going straight for the face, huh?” Rosaria smirked, her expression both amused and taunting.
“Grr…!”
Letton, now visibly enraged, immediately launched another attack. Since his right fist was already extended, he allowed the momentum to carry his body into a spin.
Twisting his torso, he brought his left elbow around in a sharp, powerful strike.
There was no way she could dodge twice in a row….especially not an unexpected follow-up like this. Letton was certain that this time, she wouldn’t escape.
But…
Tsk-tsk.
“Huh?!”
Rather than ducking this time, Rosaria raised her arm, and instead of dodging, she deflected Letton’s blow upward.
“Uh, how did you do that…?”
As Letton spun around in a circle, barely able to regain his footing as his attack was once again deflected, he looked at Rosaria with a puzzled expression, but she was smiling to herself, having dodged his blow without moving a single step since the beginning of the duel.
The first time was a fluke, but the second time was definitely not a fluke.
In the first place, the elbow was aimed at her chest, not her face.
Dodging it was angularly impossible without moving her feet.
However, when I say deflecting the attack, I don’t mean blocking it, I mean pushing away the lower point of the flying left elbow with precise timing and force.
Letton broke out in a cold sweat, embarrassed that he hadn’t been able to pull off such a skill, even with his own elbow.
If Letton had been thinking clearly, he would have already realized the difference between Rosaria and himself.
“What, did she come here to dance, not to punch? If that’s the case, why did she come to the ballroom?”
“Eh, gee…!”
“That can’t be…! There must be some trick…!
However, Letton could not make such a judgment because he could not accept the fact that he had lost to Rosaria, who was openly provoking him, and to the noble lady of Youdi’s noble upbringing, whom he had ignored all this time.
With that, Letton immediately pounced on Rosaria once again.
What followed was a literal joke.
Punching, kicking, and kneeing, Rosaria didn’t even move from her seat, dodging or deflecting every attack.
“Huck…! Hmph…! Huh…!”
“What, is it over already?”
“I’m definitely the one who’s hitting…why am I the one who gets tired first…?
After a dozen or so rounds, Letton was breathing erratically and raggedly, his posture already broken.
Rosaria, on the other hand, hadn’t broken a sweat.
“How did that happen…?”
“Letton’s drying you off completely…?”
“The same Letton that was in my top five last semester…why?”
As these moments continued, the mood of the students, who had been giggling and predicting Letton’s victory, changed drastically.
Despite being ranked fifty-fourth in the combat majors in the previous semester (and failing all of his ethics exams), Letton was one of the top five combat majors in the school.
The students watched the duel in disbelief, as if they couldn’t believe that Letton was being pranked by Rosaria.
And there was another person who was surprised.
“How strong am I?
It was Rosaria herself, pranking Letton.
Rosaria, who had been alternating between Dariann and Gordon on a daily basis, had never actually competed against anyone else.
Rosaria, though uncertain about the full extent of her strength, had been deliberately provoking Letton to draw out his best.
However, it became glaringly obvious that his movements were far too slow for her, even without Ariel’s assistance.
‘Guess I was worried for nothing.’
Relaxing, Rosaria smiled faintly as she solidified her understanding that Letton was leagues beneath her.
“No way…!”
“Hm? What are you mumbling about now?”
Rosaria tilted her head in curiosity as Letton suddenly stopped attacking and muttered angrily under his breath.
“I CAN’T LOSE TO A WOMAN LIKE HER!!!”
Letton’s shout erupted with rage as he glared at Rosaria, his eyes wild.
“What kind of trick are you using, you cheating wench?!”
“Oh, here we go…”
Despite the numerous exchanges that should have made the gap between them painfully clear, Letton couldn’t bring himself to accept it. Instead, he resorted to accusing her of foul play, his voice trembling with frustration.
“Professor Gutton! This is cheating! That girl must be using a magical artifact or some underhanded method!”
Unable to suppress his indignation, Letton turned to Gutton, who had been silently observing the match.
“…Is that so?”
“That must be it! It doesn’t make sense otherwise!”
“Yes, so unfair!”
Encouraged by Letton’s accusations, several other students began to echo his sentiments.
It seemed implausible to them that Rosaria, an inexperienced noblewoman with no prior combat reputation, could defeat someone like Letton.
Furthermore, Rosaria’s sharp, villainous features added a veneer of plausibility to the allegations, making her an easy target for ridicule.
“…No,” Gutton declared firmly, cutting through the rising clamor.
“That student has not used any magical tools or underhanded tactics.”
“Th-that can’t be! Are you just defending her because she’s a count’s daughter—?”
“Do you think I would stoop so low? Me? Against a brat like you?”
“…!”
Gutton, a renowned combat instructor at the academy, commanded immense respect. His reputation preceded him even before his tenure at the school, and his skill was universally acknowledged as top-tier.
Letton and the students who had been jeering froze, silenced by the sheer weight of Gutton’s presence and authority.
“Listen,” Gutton continued. “Rosaria has defeated you using nothing but her raw skill and technique.
Accept it.”
Letton’s mouth hung open, but no words came out.
“Yeesh, this is getting pathetic,” Rosaria interjected, her tone a mix of pity and indifference.
She still hadn’t moved from her spot, her hands resting idly as she looked at Letton with an almost bored expression.
“Let’s wrap this up, shall we?”
“You… you witch!”
Enraged once more, Letton abandoned any semblance of control and charged at her recklessly.
Unlike his earlier, precise movements, he now resembled little more than a wild beast, his attacks fueled by raw anger and desperation.
“Huff…”
Watching his clumsy charge, Rosaria sighed deeply.
Then she inhaled.
“Hup—”
“?!”
In an instant, Rosaria disappeared from Letton and the students’ view.
As Rosaria, who had been clearly visible in front of them, vanished, Letton looked around in confusion.
At that moment.
“Here, you idiot.”
Thud-
“Urgh-?!?!”
Rosaria, who had launched herself above Letton’s head, called out to him and delivered a swift kick. The strike landed squarely on the back of his head, sending him flying.
Whoosh—
Crash!
Letton, now literally lifted off his feet, soared through the air in a wide arc before landing outside the training arena.
“Ugh… ugh… urgh—”
After rolling several times across the dirt, Letton, covered head to toe in dust, finally collapsed meters away from the arena, completely unconscious.
“Rosaria wins!”
Gutton, glancing briefly at the unconscious Letton who had clearly lost due to a ring-out, quickly declared Rosaria’s victory.
It was a situation where all that was left for the winner was to step down from the arena and bask in triumph…
But instead, Rosaria stood tall in the middle of the arena, her back turned, unmoving.
“Huh? What’s she doing? The match is already over,”
“Next.”
Shiver—
At that moment, a chill ran down the students’ spines.
Though she had dealt with Letton, the truth was Rosaria was also annoyed by the other students who had used him as a shield to gossip about her behind her back.
Taking advantage of this opportunity, Rosaria intended to teach them all a lesson.
“Uh… Professor?”
“Oh… this could make for an interesting class,”
“…What?!”
“Excellent! While we’re at it, why not determine who’s the strongest among the students this semester? Alright, everyone! It’s time for a fun recreational activity!”
The students, trembling at Rosaria’s confident declaration to call up the next challenger, looked desperately to Gutton for help, but he instead smiled, his face brimming with curiosity, and even encouraged them to step forward.
“If you’re not coming up, I’ll come to you.”
“Eek…!”
“R-Run away!!!”
“Ahhhh!!!”
As Rosaria stepped down from the arena and announced she’d come to them herself, the students, terrified, immediately turned and scattered in a panic.
Later, witnesses would report that on that day, they saw students flying through the air across the training grounds.