Chapter 3

To get straight to the point, Alexa returned to her room and cried as soon as her first swordsmanship class ended. If one had to find a reason, it was less about her weakness and more about her innocence.

How many from the small port city of Moos had ever entered the Konstanz Academy? Not even the Lord’s own son had managed it. To attend the Academy meant one possessed exceptional ability. But there was another requirement as well.

That was, distinguished blood.

As soon as she attended her first class, Alexa realized that among her fellow students, those from the commoner class like herself were a rare few. In her grade, there were only twenty-five students, and just four of them—including Alexa—were commoners.

It made sense. Swordsmanship also required proper teaching, and commoners, who often had no master to instruct them, rarely had the chance to develop their talent. So, even though the Academy advertised itself as open to all, most entrants were inevitably nobles.

And among those four commoners, Alexa was the only girl. In fact, she was the only female in the entire swordsmanship division. It was only natural. It was extremely rare for noblewomen to learn the sword. Even counting all the upperclasswomen, there were only ten in total.

Alexa couldn’t shake the feeling of being isolated in a strange place. But she couldn’t let that make her lose sight of her goal.

To become a Royal Knight. It was her dream from the moment she first held a sword. And the Academy would be her stepping stone to fulfill that dream.

‘So don’t lose heart, Alexandra Lindau. Get it together.’

“…Alexandra Lindau, step forward!”

She instinctively jumped up the moment her name was called. She could feel all eyes shooting toward her, making her shrink with sweat running down her back.

The first class was a skill assessment through sparring. First-years to fifth-years sat in a circle around the round training ground, with the professor standing in the center. Alexa swallowed nervously and stepped up to the professor.

Standing there already was Reinhardt, facing her. Just as she’d seen before, his expression was blank as he looked at Alexa. Alexa bit her lip to keep from smiling. This was class time. Don’t grin like an idiot!

The professor smiled at the two of them.

“A match between the top and second students—this should be interesting.”

At those words, Alexa snapped to attention.

Come to think of it, Reinhardt was the one who had entered the Academy in first place, ahead of her. She didn’t know just how skilled he was, but the thought of sparring with him stoked her competitive spirit.

Her eyes sparkled as she looked at Reinhardt. She knew her face must be filled with anticipation right now.

Just moments ago, Alexa’s face had seemed a little shy and girlish, but now it burst with energy, making Reinhardt’s eyes narrow slightly.

“Draw!”

At the professor’s shout, both of them immediately raised their wooden swords upright. At the tip of Alexa’s sword was Reinhardt’s calm—no, indifferent—face. Alexa wanted to see his face twist in surprise, joy, or even discomfort.

When the professor’s hand, raised toward the sky, suddenly dropped to the ground, both of them sprang forward. The sound of wooden swords colliding rang out loudly across the training ground. The force was far greater than Alexa expected; pain shot through her wrist and elbow.

Alexa gritted her teeth, shook off her opponent, and stepped back. There was no way she could win in a head-on clash. She had to find a weakness and tenaciously exploit it.

But her thoughts didn’t last long. Suddenly, Reinhardt’s face was much too close, and she felt a sharp pain as if her grip was being torn apart. Then her wooden sword clattered loudly to the ground.

It was the sword that had just been in Alexa’s hand.

“Wow, did you see that?”

“As expected of Young Duke Odenwald.”

“That commoner girl doesn’t even know what happened, does she?”

“Hey, she’s totally spaced out. Haha.”

Alexa stood frozen, staring at Reinhardt. He stood calmly, then tilted his head toward her.

“Not going to pick up your sword?”

Her face flushed bright red. Alexa had never once dropped her sword since she started wielding one. To lose it so easily, without even a proper fight…

Feeling dazed, she went to pick up her sword from where it had fallen. As she bent down, someone’s voice stabbed into her ear.

“That’s the second place? Isn’t something wrong?”

“If a commoner managed to get in here, their family must be loaded. Probably just paid a ton of money, right?”

Her hand trembled. What had she just heard? Suddenly, the faces of her family, friends, people from her hometown, her Master—everyone who had cheered her on—flashed through her mind.

‘I worked so hard to get here… I can’t be insulted like this just because I lost my first match.’

Alexa’s eyes blazed. With a pale, stiff face, she gripped her sword and turned around. She walked straight back to Reinhardt and, polite and formal but gritting her teeth, made a request to the professor.

“I’d like to spar once more.”

Maybe the professor liked her fighting spirit, or maybe he found her stubbornness amusing. He smiled and told her to go ahead. Alexa faced Reinhardt again.

This time, she managed to clash swords a little longer, but the result was the same—defeat.

Reinhardt’s sword touching her shoulder felt as cold as a real blade. Alexa gritted her teeth to hide her ragged breath. With a slightly irritable motion, she stepped away from her opponent’s sword, trying hard not to show her frustration. It was a spar—sometimes you lose. Reinhardt might just be better than her. That was only natural.

But what hurt her wasn’t the defeat itself. It was the voices whispering around her. All of them were belittling her, with mocking eyes raining down. They didn’t like that the runner-up was a commoner and a girl.

Holding back the urge to cry, Alexa returned to her seat.

As she walked in alongside Reinhardt, he spoke quietly.

“Whoever taught you swordsmanship, you’ve picked up some pretty bad habits.”

‘You should fix those parts as you learn.’

At that, Alexa quickly turned her head to glare at him.

Reinhardt’s face was cold. No, it wasn’t just cold. He had ‘evaluated’ Alexa’s swordsmanship as he pleased, without knowing anything about her past efforts.

Even if Reinhardt was better with a sword, he was just a fellow new student!

“Watch your words.”

Alexa forced out the words through gritted teeth. Seeing her angry, Reinhardt’s eyes narrowed.

“It’s best to take advice to heart.”

“What makes you think you’re so…!”

She nearly shouted “great,” but barely held back. Alexa glared at Reinhardt and turned her head sharply away, grinding her teeth as she returned to her seat. Reinhardt looked at her for a moment, then returned to his own seat.

Seated, Alexa struggled not to gasp with anger.

‘Who did he think he was, to talk like that?’

Alexa was furious.

Just before the spar, she’d thought Reinhardt was handsome and wonderful, but now, in her mind, he’d turned into an annoyingly smug jerk. Was she supposed to listen to that from a classmate, just because she lost once? There was no reason to accept his evaluation. Her feelings of anger and injustice surged.

Come to think of it, what was Reinhardt’s expression like when she dropped her sword and when his sword touched her shoulder?

‘Was it “Is this really the one who comes after me?”’

‘Wasn’t it a face that seemed to be mocking me!’

Gradually, in Alexa’s heart, Reinhardt became an arrogant person. The whispers, sneers, and disregard from those around her, combined with the fact that her sword had been so thoroughly defeated, filled Alexa’s mind with all kinds of negative thoughts. And all that frustration was directed at Reinhardt, who had beaten her. She had no room to consider how irrational that was.

After that, none of the other matches caught her eye. Alexa kept replaying the moment in her mind, clashing swords with Reinhardt again and again, imagining him sneering at her. She repeated over and over, trying to figure out where she had made a mistake, what had gone wrong.

Before she knew it, the first class was over. When the professor finished giving instructions, the students greeted him and left the training ground in small groups. Lost in her own thoughts, Alexa only started to move at the very end.

Just as she was about to leave the training ground, she noticed the group of male freshmen gathered over there. And in the center was Reinhardt. The freshmen surrounding him seemed busy praising Reinhardt’s swordsmanship.

“As expected, Captain Wiesbaden was right to acknowledge you, Young Duke!”

“Man, my heart was pounding every time you swung your sword.”

“The phrase ‘genius of the century’ really suits Young Duke Odenwald. Of course.”

Whether Reinhardt was listening or not, he just kept his eyes slightly lowered, wearing an indifferent expression. Seeing that, Alexa inwardly snorted.

‘He must be sick of hearing the same compliments. How can he keep such a shameless face while hearing embarrassing things like “genius of the century”?’

Alexa pursed her lips and tried to pretend she hadn’t seen them as she passed by. But then Reinhardt’s eyes turned toward her. As his gaze shifted, the boys surrounding him all looked in the same direction. Someone whistled.

“Geez, if it were me, I’d be too embarrassed to keep the runner-up spot.”

“A commoner as runner-up, what a fluke.”

“Isn’t it basically a miracle she even got in here?”

Alexa’s face flushed bright red. She wanted to charge at them, knock them all down, and cause a huge scene. But she couldn’t become the troublemaker on her very first day at the Academy. Hold it in, she had to endure. Alexa forced herself to calm down and quickened her pace.

At that moment, one of the boys asked Reinhardt,

“What do you think, Young Duke Odenwald? Is Alexandra Lindau’s sword any good?”

And Reinhardt’s answer stabbed Alexa in the heart like a dagger.

“Well, I’m not sure.”

She couldn’t take it anymore. Feeling her eyes burn, Alexa broke into a run. She didn’t want to show those jerks her tears. In her rush to escape, Alexa didn’t hear the rest of Reinhardt’s words.

“I think I’ll have to clash swords with her a lot more. Actually, I want to.”

‘Lindau’s sword is really, really interesting.’

A gentle smile spread across his lips, and a few of the boys gasped in surprise. Reinhardt rarely smiled like that.

But Alexa couldn’t see his smile, and would never know about it—not then, not ever.

Back in her room, Alexa threw herself onto her bed, buried herself under the covers, and cried her eyes out. With her skin as pale as flour, whenever she cried her eyes and nose turned uncontrollably red, so she always tried her best not to cry. But today, she simply couldn’t hold back. She only managed to calm down after crying until her eyes and nose were as red and raw as strawberries.

She regretted all the time she’d spent thinking Reinhardt was like a prince from a novel, so handsome, her heart fluttering. She regretted all the feelings she’d wasted expecting something from him. If she’d known he was the type to look down on others, she never, ever would have liked him.

Once her small crush on Reinhardt faded, what took its place was the exact opposite: anger, resentment, and the thought, ‘I’m going to beat that b*stard no matter what.’

Being humiliated, being disappointed in him—all of it hurt, but what made her angriest was losing without being able to put up a fight. Of course, Reinhardt—though Alexa didn’t know it well—was truly called a ‘genius of the century,’ expected to reach Swordmaster faster than anyone.

But that didn’t mean Alexa’s skills were lacking. She was also incredibly talented, enough to shock her Master who’d taught her.

Because Alexa had never lost so badly to anyone, the shock was much greater.

“Just wait.”

Alexa clenched her fist. Her teeth ground together with a scary sound.

She remembered every face of her classmates who had mocked her. She was sure none of them could beat her. She would trample them all, one by one. Just because they were nobles, just because they were boys, entering with grades lower than hers and daring to sneer—she would make them regret it.

And at the end of that list was Reinhardt. Somehow, in her mind, Reinhardt had become a nasty boy with a sly, mean smile.