NOVEL NEXT Chapter 27: 100 points
“Hey, Mizu…?”
Adryn, who had relatively quickly recovered from the shock, cautiously called out to Mizu.
“…?”
Mizu looked at her, still showing signs of being shaken.
“That move you just showed me, is that for real?”
“What do you mean?”
“Did Ceylon really mimic it correctly…? And is it something that can be easily imitated like that?”
Ha.
Mizu let out a small chuckle.
“Hey, hey. Miss Adryn. How do you even see Bauer’s sword? What’s your opinion on it? Does it seem like something an idiot like him could see and imitate at a glance?”
“What!? Oh, no, I didn’t mean it that way…”
“Just kidding, just kidding. I know what you meant. I even briefly thought, ‘Huh? He can do The Form of Unraveling just like that?'”
Mizu looked at Ceylon with a somewhat serious expression.
“Hey, idiot. No, Ceylon. Tell me. What happened?”
“What do you mean by what happened?”
“Your mimicry isn’t just a simple imitation.”
If it were just mimicking the appearance, it might be possible somehow.
“But in your mimicry, the intricacies of our Bauer’s sword technique, The Form of Unraveling, were clearly present. Did you really grasp it just by seeing it once? Impossible. Absolutely impossible. There are only two possibilities.”
Mizu raised both index fingers.
“Usually, in situations like this, don’t people raise the index and middle fingers on one hand?”
“Well, it’s cool, isn’t it? I invented it.”
“It’s so… innovative and cool that my hands are trembling. Can I try it later too?”
“Do whatever you want.”
Mizu folded her left index finger.
“One possibility. You have an unbelievable talent for The Form of Unraveling.”
“Oh, I like that one, shall we go with that?”
“Of course, it’s ridiculous, Your Excellency.”
“Oh, how disappointing.”
Mizu folded her right index finger.
“Another possibility. You already know about The Form of Unraveling. Honestly, I almost have a certainty about this one.”
Adryn exclaimed, “Huh!?”
Indeed, if Ceylon had already acquired knowledge of The Form of Unraveling, it would explain everything. In fact, nothing else would make sense.
“So, you need to explain, Ceylon. How do you know about The Form of Unraveling?”
Ceylon put a finger to his lips.
His gaze, eyelashes, and the corner of his mouth all formed a sly smile.
It was a meaningful smile.
A secret.
“…It doesn’t seem like a situation where I can just let it slide. Even if you ignore it, The Form of Unraveling is undoubtedly the proud heritage of the Bauer family’s noble swordsmanship.”
NOTE: I think she accused Adryn?
“Huh? Huh? What? Me?”
“You know it well. Regardless of how insignificant our swordsmanship might seem to Miss Adryn, it’s still our family’s noble swordsmanship.”
“Huh? No, why me…”
Adryn interrupted and pouted.
“So, as an member of the Bauer family, it’s my duty to find out how you acquired knowledge of The Form of Unraveling. Remember, depending on your answer, I may have to become a very wicked woman. I’m going to be a terribly deadly villain.”
Her attitude was playful, but placing her hand on the hilt of his longsword created a sharp tension.
“Uh… um…”
Adryn didn’t know what to do, but cautiously moved closer to Ceylon.
Once she was relatively close to Ceylon, she cautiously stood to face Mizu.
In case Mizu lunged, Adryn could always deal with it.
“Well, this is getting awkward.”
Ceylon’s face displayed a different kind of smile. A sly, bitter smile.
“Now that it’s come to this, I guess I have to tell you the story I wanted to keep as a secret.”
But the following words, accompanied by that sly, bitter smile, felt oddly ominous.
Mizu took an involuntary step back.
With nothing more than a change in Ceylon’s demeanor, his previously carefree atmosphere had become so eerie.
“Miss Mizu, instead of backing away, could you please come closer, because this is going to be a pretty secretive topic.”
“…Right here, right now, besides us, who’s going to hear it?”
Ceylon raised an index finger and pointed upward.
Could he be referring to the officials who might be observing the test?
Not even the academy officials should know about this.
What kind of sceret that he want to tell her?
Late regret mixed with uneasiness.
Had she touched something she shouldn’t have?
Mizu hesitated but slowly approached Ceylon.
They were inside the dungeon, and Academy instructors were watching.
What she feared wouldn’t happen.
She encouraged herself silently by repeating those words several times.
“Hmm? Why is Miss Adryn-”
“What? What? I can’t listen to this!? It’s something I shouldn’t know about!?”
Ceylon shrugs his shoulders and opens his mouth to speak as Adryn watches him cautiously.
Adryn and Mizu could feel his mouth moving very slowly.
A breathless tension that seemed to slow time.
Soon, an unbelievable story emerged from Ceylon’s mouth.
“In reality, my recorded time in the second test exceeded Kasha’s record. It’s less than 1 minute.”
“…?”
“…?”
It was an unbelievable story, but it was not what they expected.
They thought it was going to be a great story, rhyming with ‘Actually, my identity is-‘.
Adryn and Mizu looked at Ceylon’s expression.
He seemed nonchalant.
The eerie and ominous atmosphere from a moment ago now felt like an illusion, and his demeanor had returned to its usual carefree state, as if it could be blown away by the wind.
Could it be because of his mood?
Seeing their stunned expressions, Ceylon couldn’t help but enjoy himself.
Adryn and Mizu’s faces crumpled at the same time.
“What’s going on? Is that all? Did you make such a big deal just to tell me this?”
“Are you kidding me?”
Sigh…
Adryn sighed and shook her head.
“So, what’s the deal with all this? Is it true that your second test record exceeded Kasha’s? less than 1 minute?”
As Adryn started to continue her sentence, her eyes widened.
“You, don’t tell me… You’re trying to bring up some foolish romance story in this situation, are you!?”
“Romance?”
“Haha, no way. Miss Adryn, I’m as serious as it gets right now. Of course, that romance story was also told with sincerity.”
“What romance story?”
“Oh, Miss Mizu, do you happen to know what romance is?”
“Ah! Shut up, shut up, Ceylon, get back to what you were talking about! I can’t believe you spent less than 1 minute in your second exam. What does that mean, and why are you talking about it now?”
“Come to think of it… Hey, you idiot. I definitely asked you how you acquired Bauer’s sword through some means or another. Are you trying to dodge the question?”
Two pairs of demanding eyes were fixed on Ceylon.
Ceylon, whose initial embarrassment had completely disappeared in the presence of the two people, smiled with satisfaction and continued the story.
He told them the story behind the second test.
How he’d actually gotten a less than 1 minute record, and how he’d actually outperformed Drin and Kasha.
How it was all thanks to her natural talent for assassination.
That Instructor Sinia had covered it up as a favor because she feared it would be controversial if it was revealed in the Academy exams.
“You really exceeded both Drin and Kasha’s records?”
“Talent for assassination techniques…?”
Adryn and Mizu showed not just skepticism but astonishment.
“That’s correct. Instructor Sinia advised me to conceal my talent for assassination techniques as much as possible, fearing that it would lead to trouble during the entrance exam. Originally, I was willing to follow her advice purely. In fact, I didn’t care as long as I got into the Academy. But suddenly, I got greedy.”
“Greedy?”
“Yes. I wanted to get the highest possible score, even if it meant getting involved in complicated matters.”
Ceylon looked at Adryn and Mizu in turn and smiled bitterly.
“Looking at it now, my situation has already become quite complicated, hasn’t it?”
Ceylon was right. Rumors about Ceylon had spread among the participants, becoming distorted. He had unwittingly become a despicable figure attempting to surpass Drin Lebringer and Kasha Hanahan through illicit means.
A scum who tried to rise above the pride of the nobility, Drin Lebringer and Kasha Hanahan, by cheating.
A commoner who surpassed Drin Lebringer and Kasha Hanahan with the talent of assassination technique.
From some perspectives, both reputations were equally bad.
If anything, the latter might have been slightly better.
After all, it’s better for him from being a powerless nobody to at least being treated as a powerful nobody.
“So, since I’ve already become a nobody, I thought I might as well become a slightly better nobody. And then-”
Ceylon looked at Mizu.
“As if by fate, Miss Mizu appeared before me.”
“What’s with the lyrical phrasing? are you try to hitting on me?”
“Well, I don’t think so, Mizu. Let’s continue with the story for now.”
Adryn, who seemed flustered for some reason, urged Ceylon to continue the story.
“At the moment when I saw Miss Mizu of the Baurer family, Bauer’s sword came to mind. When Bauer’s sword came to mind, I also remembered that it was a sword technique combined with assassination techniques. So I thought, if I, born with a talent for assassination techniques, could understand something by perceiving the Bauer’s sword, which is combined with assassination techniques?”
Could he unfold assassination techniques through sword techniques?
Snap!
Ceylon snapped his fingers.
“As you all have seen, the result was a success.”
Mizu, who had organized her thoughts in her head, tilted her head in amusement.
“So, what you’re saying is that you only saw my movements once, understood the mysteries within Bauer’s sword, and that’s purely due to your talent for assassination techniques. Is that right?”
“Exactly.”
It wasn’t entirely unreasonable.
Bauer’s sword had originally been developed from the hands of assassins and improved upon by them, after all.
“Hey, idiot, what are the chances of me believing your story?”
“For Miss Adryn, it’s a hundred percent!”
“Huh? Me?”
“Seems like it. Miss Teln, on the other hand, has some doubts.”
“Why me…”
“Anyway, idiot. You’ll soon understand. How absurd your story is.”
This idiot man had recorded an incredible score, surpassing Drin Lebringer and Kasha Hanahan, thanks to his innate talent for assassination techniques.
It was an unbelievable story.
“The problem is, it’s so ridiculous that it gains credibility. No matter how stupid you are, you wouldn’t insert an instant fact-checking secondary test into a lie designed to deceive others. On top of that, you wouldn’t dare sell the names of Lebringer, Hanahan, and the Instructor. So, while I don’t take your word for it, for now, I’ll let it slide.”
So.
” As a Self-proclaimed talented person in assassination techniques, What did you discover after looking at our Bauer’s sword?”
Mizu’s emotionless eyes showed a hint of curiosity.
Ceylon grinned refreshingly.
“Just as I expected, I realized that Bauer’s sword was the perfect means to express my talent for assassination techniques through swordsmanship. And—”
“And?”
“I realized that Bauer’s sword is an excellent swordsmanship.”
“Excellent swordsmanship huh, Bauer’s sword is a rootless sword that isn’t even assassination techniques or swordsmanship.”
There was not even a hint of self-pity in Mizu demeanor as she spoke.
The disdain and discrimination for Bauer’s sword had already become more than familiar to her, it had become the norm.
“To a guy who lacks the fundamentals like me, walking the path of a subject that’s neither assassination techniques nor swordsmanship, isn’t it the best?”
However, this foolish man.
This man who was spouting such unbelievable nonsense about having talents surpassing Drin Lebringer and Kasha Hanahan, this man was speaking about Bauer’s sword like that.
“In this test, I’ll raise the stature of Bauer’s sword with my master.”
Thump.
Mizu raised her thumb towards Ceylon.
“100 points.”
At this moment, Ceylon had fully mastered the Bauer’s Sword.
It was the moment when he gained the means and justification to freely unfold his talents in assassination techniques.