While Vincent ignored everyone, a great deal of talk went back and forth. Enough that even the inattentive Adele could hear it.

Already sensitive as she was, Adele’s ears were stinging from it all.

Even when she had become a national hero and been praised wherever she went, interest had never been sustained this long. Did they really have that much to say?

On top of that, listening carefully, it was all talk of no particular value.

She was newly struck by Vincent’s position. And the image of what must have been the worst period of his life, his academy days before the regression, naturally formed in her mind.

To think he had heard talk like this wherever he went. If it had been Adele, she would have thrown a punch at whoever was standing right next to her before even getting to the prince.

If it were her, never mind during the semester, she would have been suspended before she even enrolled.

The Vincent of that time had surely known that nothing worked as well as a fist for silencing everyone. He had simply had more patience than Adele.

Adele deliberately grabbed the wooden sword and swung it around noisily. No one except Vincent and Charles was paying attention to her actions.

To think he had been in the middle of this kind of commotion every single time.

Before the regression, Vincent would have had no place to rest, neither at home nor at the academy.

That matched Adele’s memories as well. It was only natural to be despised when someone of the kingdom’s own blood had seized the enemy kingdom’s throne and invaded. But seeing the situation like this now made her feel uneasy.

Who had made the villain? Had Vincent truly been a villain from the very beginning?

Those thoughts kept floating through her mind.

Adele shook her head vigorously and cast the thoughts away. What was she thinking, trying to understand the greatest villain in the kingdom. No, in the entire world!

Now that she was here, there was no chance of Vincent becoming a villain.

So it was a non-issue. Vincent was not a villain. She would make sure he never had to hear talk like that again. And all the attention would be hers!

Adele turned sharply toward Charles and fixed him with an intense stare.

It was a look that reproached him for not starting already. Charles chuckled briefly at her boldness and nodded.

“We have had too much idle talk. Let us begin then.”

Roger was no more pleased about the situation than anyone else.

When the professor gave his permission, Roger let out a long sigh. How had he ended up in a situation like this?

The idea of laying a hand on a woman did not sit well with him no matter what method he used. On top of that, from what he had heard people saying, she appeared to be the Young Viscount Rogato’s lover.

Nobles were a thoroughly self-serving lot. There were many noble classmates who acted friendly toward him, but he could not fail to notice the underlying contempt that seeped through.

They were not seeing Roger as a person in his own right. He was simply the top student, convenient to show off by keeping around.

Once they graduated, the framework of being classmates would shatter and they would become employer and employee.

If that was how it would be, working at the royal palace and never having to see their unpleasant faces again might be the better choice. If he was going to be treated the same way, he would rather be employed by royalty.

Roger was that thoroughly sick of nobles and had no desire to exchange even words with them.

So what was he to do with this woman called Adele, who appeared to be that noble’s lover? Should he knock her out before she even had a chance to react? He would be cursed at for being a person without blood, tears, or mercy, but what could he do?

He feared people’s resentment, but he feared nobles more. It might be better to end it quickly.

But it was not easy to give his all against someone who was still switching the sword from one hand to the other and stretching.

It was difficult to dare guess at the professor’s intentions, but he just had to play along with this strange performance for a moment.

Just look at her now. It had been quite a while since they started, and that woman was still in the same spot……

“Hm?”

The woman had suddenly disappeared. He had only looked away for a moment, so where had she gone? Roger was puzzling over it and turning his head to the side when it happened.

“Where do you think you are looking?”

Thwack!

Adele instantly struck the back of Roger’s neck in one motion and knocked him unconscious.

By the time Adele realized that was the method for safely causing memory loss without side effects, she had already acted.

‘Well, what does it matter. The others will explain it to him later.’

The moment Roger crumpled to the ground, the students who had been going on about Vincent fell silent in an instant.

When the students came to their senses, what they saw was a red-haired woman standing with a wooden sword held awkwardly, and Roger collapsed on the ground.

“Wh, what?”

“Did you see that?”

“Is this a performance?”

A new topic of whispering was born.

None of the students had seen it properly, but the faculty was different. Even though they had been indifferent, the moment the match began they had focused immediately and witnessed everything.

Just as everyone was beginning to grow bored watching her keep rotating her wrists even after it had started, they all realized it at the same time.

The movement that red-haired woman had been showing was the orthodox method for circulating aura through the body. The moment the question arose of whether she could actually use aura, the woman moved.

By the time anyone thought to react, it was already too late.

The woman had swung the casually held wooden sword and struck the back of Roger’s neck without mercy. The thought of whether she actually knew where the vital points were was immediately answered.

Roger had collapsed on the spot right after.

The woman before their eyes was a remarkable prodigy unlike any they had seen before.

The victor, Adele, sniffed and looked at Vincent.

‘Look at this, your teacher is this extraordinary a person! So admire me all the more!’

Adele’s pride was soaring higher and higher without any fear of the sky.

The first to clap was Vincent.

Adele suppressed the wicked urge to stomp on the fallen loser and stand on top of him in triumph, and instead simply raised her chin with satisfaction.

Soon, applause filled the entire sparring ground.

– – –

“Sir Theodore! Just now, what was that?”

“Hm? What do you mean?”

Charles tilted his head at the professors who had followed after him. The match was over, so why were they trailing behind him like this? He still had his interrupted workout to finish.

None of them looked pleased. They glared at him with expressions that said they could not make sense of the situation at all.

“Give us a proper explanation at once!”

Explanation, what explanation? Charles was growing weary of the situation. On top of that, his muscles were protesting that they wanted to keep working.

“Did I not tell you? It was a friendly match.”

The professors were not the type to let it go at Charles’s indifferent answer. They all rushed at him as though they might devour him on the spot and cried out.

“She will be coming to my department, naturally?”

“Looking at her just now, our major seems more suited to her. Would you not agree?”

“That jumping posture of hers, I think our side is a better fit!”

“None of you know what you are talking about! Where else would such a gifted student go if not to my department?”