"Apparently, a cadet in one of the other classes is missing. Her friends say they haven't been able to contact her since last Friday."
"What about her room?"
The wolfman shrugged.
"I don't know much about the details. As far as I've heard, it's mostly just rumors."
'That's odd.
I'd never written about any missing characters in the story.
'Did something change? Or...'
Was Alice finally making her move? But if she was, why would it be just one cadet missing instead of four? That would only work to alarm the other Skinwalkers.
'How strange!
There was a growing, sinking feeling in my gut.
Yet before I could contemplate any further, a clear voice interrupted my train of thought.
"That is enough."
The authority behind it was enough to shut the crowd up.
Kaito.
He scanned the cadets wordlessly, then he began.
"Cadet Lee."
"Cadet Eren."
"Step forward and begin."
I, along with most of the crowd, let out a relieved sigh. We'd done this
song and dance quite a few times already.
It'd never been pretty. Not once.
Hence, I could only give my best wishes to the two nervous cadets stepping forward. Knowing that soon enough, it'd be my turn as well.
Kaito had all the time in the world. There were only 40 of us, and he had at least eight months with us.
The wet, sickening sound of bone meeting flesh dominated the silence of the combat hall.
Both boys, one blond and one dark-haired, dyed the mat red with their blood. The dark-haired one, Cadet Lee, fared slightly better than Cadet Eren. Not that it made him any less pitiful than the latter. Tears streamed down his bruised face as he pummeled Eren's face, both of their weapons lying strewn to the side.
As Lee cocked his arm to deliver another punch, Kaito finally stepped
in.
"That is enough."
Lee dropped his arm before promptly collapsing to his side. How exactly they'd both reached such pitiful states was a story I'd much rather not recount. Needless to say, it was a messy fight. They were both commoners, lacking in technique or martial arts. It was more a street brawl than a duel. It felt like watching an execution while standing in line with the damned.
With my shitty luck, I'll get paired against Vladimir, or fucking Varic!
Kaito, being Kaito, didn't even spare the boys' collapsed forms a glance before clapping his hands.
"Let's begin then. Go to your partners."
Just like the man, we chose not to comment on the boys either, the crowd slowly dispersing to start the class proper. Like always, I chose
a spear. Though, I had to say, I'd long begun souring on the weapon. It was simply too unwieldy for my constitution; sure, it helped keep Maki at a distance, yet before I could do shit with that distance, the girl would have long blitzed me.
'Haaahh... Let's try this again!
There was a reason I still chose the weapon regardless, and that was keeping my distance. Without that, I'd get blitzed immediately.
Testing my grip against the wooden grain of the shaft, I stepped up to Maki in our usual spot. The girl stood in a relaxed guard, her rapier hanging casually down, and watched me with a sort of bored
amusement.
"Are you still picking a spear?"
There was no hiding the hint of smugness in her voice.
'Then again, I'd be pretty smug too if I had a 40 to 0 win-loss ratio!
The thought did little to console me. Still, I hadn't just been twiddling my thumbs after the simulation. Especially so after she beat my ass again last week. At first, I'd attempted studying the spear, only to very quickly find out that perfected stances meant shit if you couldn't go through them fast enough.
The logical alternative to that was studying Maki's combat style. With [Error Sense], of course. Although I wouldn't be able to outright see flaws in her technique due to abilities being outlawed in the spar, it did give me a good idea of what they might look like. After all, most of the moves Maki displayed when sparring were just basic rapier play, sometimes mixed with some other, higher-grade martial art.
I lowered into a proper stance, pointing my spear directly at Maki.
She, on the other hand, remained loose. For some strange reason, I felt a gaze boring holes in my back at that moment.
'Begin!'
I lunged forward, seeking the element of surprise and fully
committing to a thrust on her. Maki didn't bother stepping out of range, merely sidestepping and completely evading it. The tip crashed harmlessly into the mat.
'There!
Right before she could fully position her rapier to press her advantage, I swung, dragging the tip of the spear along the mat and slamming it right into the side of her exposed knee. The girl made no sound as she buckled onto one knee, her rapier nearly escaping her
grasp.
I wasn't one to leave a lady waiting. Dropping my spear, I lunged forward to finalize things with a falling blow. Yet by the time I reached her, she was gone. She'd rolled away, getting back on her feet and into a proper fighting stance. Her rapier was pointed dangerously at me. My spear lay on the floor between us.
I looked her in the eye, then at the spear, then back at her before
lunging for it. Maki moved as well; however, she didn't need to pick
up my weapon, and her foot reached it before I did, kicking it out of
my reach.
The next thing I felt was the weight of a wooden blade on my neck.
"You win."
I raised my hands in surrender. With that, the weight lifted, and I was free to carry my weapon again. I got a proper look at Maki afterwards.
'Fuck!'
Maki looked pissed. Although she still kept her usual act of being unbothered, it was entirely betrayed by her deeply creased brows and the constant rubbing of her knee. Right where I hit her. The moment she realized I was looking, she stopped before leveling her sword at
me.
"Again."
"No."
It was a deeper voice that interrupted her. Kaito. His focus was
entirely on me.
'So, he was watching...'
Just my luck. But more importantly, why? The only reason I could
guess off the top of my head was Alice. Especially so after yesterday. He walked down to us from his post, looking at me particularly in
disappointment.
'What did I do?"
Once he reached us, the man stretched out an open palm.
"Hand over your weapon."
I did so very promptly. Just to witness him snap the shaft in half with
his bare hand. Tossing the remains to the ground, he shifted his gaze back to me.
"It'd be obvious to any cadet with even a lick of sense that the spear's
not suited for you. Why do you keep choosing it then? Are you a fool?
A coward?"
'Well shit...'
It'd be pointless lying to him at this point, so I told him my reasoning straightforwardly.
"No, Instructor. I simply thought it was best suited to my current
spar."
"Have you ever won using it?"
He got me there. I could have said it's because I was up against the
scion of a noble clan, or that I was an orphan who touched his first proper weapon roughly two weeks ago. But I very wisely chose to keep my mouth shut and replied simply.
"No, Instructor."
"The point of a spar is not to win, but to learn. I do not want to see
your hand on a spear ever again."
With that, he walked back to his post. It was only then I noticed a few
cadets had been watching us. Some interested; some-mostly nobles -mocking. I didn't bother with either of them and turned to face Maki again. She had something akin to concern on her face, though it could've well just been curiosity.
Regardless, my gaze traced down to the weapon in her hand.
"Do you know where I could get more of those?" Guess I was changing weapons now.