Ion looked at Erika with a pleased expression before heading to meet the Cairo Empire’s mage with light steps.

He thought no one could possibly defeat Erika, who had become a Sword Master at fourteen.

Becoming a Sword Master required tremendous effort, but effort alone wasn’t enough.

There was clearly an element of God-given talent that couldn’t be expressed in words.

And Erika was a child who had received that talent especially abundantly from God.

Ion believed this without a doubt.

As long as Erika was there, nothing would be a threat.

“Five times. I’ll sell it if you pay five times.”

Ion boldly named a high price.

Perhaps because he no longer hesitated to sell the Tiger’s magic stone, his confidence had grown.

The Cairo Empire’s mage glared at Ion with displeasure but eventually purchased the magic stone for five times the market price.

Ion distributed the money among his companions according to their contributions.

Naturally, Ion, who had killed the Tiger, received the largest share.

※※※

Having returned with a large sum of money, Ion decided to find a way to focus on academy life while earning money.

He wanted to observe Erika, who had become a Sword Master, from closer proximity.

He was curious how long and how she would hide it.

And he also needed to prepare for the competition for the right to succeed the throne that would begin in two or three years.

Though he had no desire to become Emperor, he needed to work hard to obtain a high title and a useful territory.

After all, the more money, the better.

The first place Ion invested his money was in a trading company.

While working as a mercenary and escorting trading companies, he had learned that they could be quite profitable if they selected their goods well.

Ion began doing business targeting nobles who had plenty of money and even more vanity.

He brought rare items with high scarcity from foreign merchants, mages, and other races he had connected with during his mercenary work and sold them to nobles.

Nobles, enticed by items said to be one-of-a-kind, were excited by the prospect of owning something no one else possessed.

The next thing Ion targeted was spices.

Spices were expensive as they relied mainly on imports, but nobles didn’t mind.

Ion also made sure not to miss investigating what Erika liked.

Erika had money but no vanity, so she showed no interest in the goods Ion dealt in.

However, being a gourmet, she showed interest in spices.

Ion began to take interest in restaurants that served food to Erika’s taste.

He acquired the steak restaurant Turkis and kept a special seat vacant for Erika to come and eat anytime.

He also acquired several dessert cafés.

This led to acquiring several farms that supplied ingredients to the dessert cafés.

This was partly to use better ingredients, but mostly to ensure a continuous supply of fruits like strawberries that Erika loved.

He also acquired a flower garden for Erika, who secretly loved flowers.

The flower garden developed magic to make Erika’s favorite flowers like Lisianthus, roses, hydrangeas, dahlias, and freesias available year-round.

Though it was for Erika, it also greatly helped to rapidly increase Ion’s wealth.

‘As expected of Erika.’

Ion felt reverence for Erika as he watched his rapidly growing wealth.

The things Erika liked or showed interest in brought Ion great success.

Ion’s obsession with Erika could only increase day by day.

Then one day, Ion found a way to get closer to her.

※※※

“How are you still like this?”

More than five years had passed since Ion and Gerick sparred at the Academy.

Being the same age, they often became sparring partners during class, but Ion’s win rate was significantly higher than Gerick’s.

Gerick had a bad habit when wielding his sword, and while most people overlooked it, Ion caught it every time to score points.

As someone who had no need to impress Gerick, Ion eagerly anticipated sparring sessions where he could publicly humiliate him.

During this time, they decided to deploy Academy students for a large-scale monster subjugation.

This served both to provide practical training for the students and to reduce the rapidly increasing monster population.

Senior students close to graduation were mainly selected to participate, and Ion joined along with Gerick and Erika.

Gerick somehow managed to be paired with Erika, while Ion was assigned to a different group.

During their free time outside of monster subjugation, students arranged sparring matches for additional training.

Unlike class sparring, these matches included active knights, which led to betting with real money.

The biggest attraction was undoubtedly the match between Gerick and Ion.

As both were princes facing the upcoming imperial succession competition, factions had already begun to form. Some who had allied with Gerick through Countess Rose’s connections wanted to see his skills firsthand.

Encouraged by these supporters, matches between Gerick and Ion were held quite frequently.

And in more than ninety percent of these confrontations, Ion emerged victorious.

Unable to defeat Ion without using underhanded tactics, Gerick devised a plan.

He decided to send out a champion in his place.

Gerick begged and pleaded with Erika to be his champion.

Erika agreed half-heartedly out of friendship with Gerick.

Ion, who had been observing the situation, inwardly rejoiced and accepted the challenge against Erika.

Gerick, believing Erika would certainly win, bet a large sum of money.

However, Ion hoped the match with Erika wouldn’t end with just one bout.

He wanted Erika to continue representing Gerick.

So he deliberately provoked her.

“Is your reputation earned, or does everyone go easy on you just because you’re the Duke of Sparta’s daughter?”

“……What?”

“I won’t go easy on you just because you’re the Duke’s only daughter. Fight properly.”

“Sigh……I can’t believe this.”

Erika tapped her shoulder with her sword.

It meant she was properly provoked.

Ion licked his dry lips and raised his sword.

His heart pounded as he wondered how Erika would approach the fight.

Erika smirked, then raised her sword to the center of her face before drawing it diagonally to the side.

She was showing proper etiquette before the match.

Ion’s face flushed red.

He was so excited that he hadn’t even thought to offer a greeting.

“Ahem.”

After clearing his throat, Ion followed Erika’s example by raising his sword to his chest and drawing it diagonally downward.

Erika looked radiant in her proper stance.

‘Let me hold out as long as I can, please.’

Ion didn’t think he could defeat Erika.

Hadn’t he admired her countless times while secretly watching her train?

He couldn’t even follow in Erika’s footsteps.

He just wanted to hold out as long as possible, not knowing when he’d have another chance to cross swords with her.

Just to be a little closer to Erika.

“You come at me first.”

Erika casually wiggled her fingers.

Now calm, she faced Ion with a perfectly composed stance.

Ion hid his twitching lips and charged forward.

He intended to start with a light clash of swords from the front.

Fortunately, Erika also seemed ready to receive Ion’s sword lightly……

Thud.

Crash.

Ion’s body, having lost balance, was suddenly rolling on the ground.

“……Did you just trip me?”

The righteous Erika.

The always upright Erika.

The exemplary Erika who was always like a textbook.

That Erika had dodged to the side, deflected Ion’s sword, and tripped him.

“I noticed you use back-alley swordsmanship when fighting Gerick.”

“……”

Well, it was true that when sparring with Gerick, he’d been so focused on winning that he hadn’t used imperial swordsmanship by the book.

Such methods worked against Gerick, who couldn’t adapt.

“But since we’re both nobles, doesn’t this approach feel wrong?”

Ion blinked and slowly nodded at Erika’s words.

If it had been anyone other than Erika, he would have certainly felt offended.

“Let’s not fight like this between us.”

What a stylish way to suggest fighting honorably with imperial swordsmanship.

Ion resisted the urge to nod frantically.

At the very least, he didn’t want to reveal that he was one of Erika’s followers.

It was Ion’s last shred of pride—not wanting to be considered just another one of Erika’s many admirers.

Ion slowly rose to his feet and gave a cool, single nod.

“As you know, things are complicated between me and Gerick. I intended to fight properly with you.”

“Really?”

Ion primly shrugged his shoulders and raised his sword.