“...My prediction was wrong.”

“No, Senior?! Why are you still here? You’re exactly the kind of person who would’ve abandoned everything and run by now!”

Lee Han cried out in genuine shock at Princess Yukbeltire’s words.

Watching the exchange, Caten thought to himself.

...Do these two actually hate each other?

They belonged to the same tower, conducted research together, and even handled jobs like this together. He had naturally assumed they were close senior and junior.

Apparently not.

“I stopped her.”

Diret answered awkwardly.

No matter what, he couldn’t leave while his junior was still fighting.

So Diret had physically blocked Princess Yukbeltire’s path and forced her to stay behind.

“Ah. So that’s what happened. As expected of Senior Diret.”

At Lee Han’s words, Princess Yukbeltire felt that unidentified emotion from earlier rise once more.

Caten looked puzzled.

It was rare to see someone from his own year trembling like that.

“...Are you angry?”

“Caten of House Jahan. Trivial emotions like anger are beneath me...”

“You really do look angry, though.”

“I am not angry.”

The moment she finished speaking, Princess Yukbeltire resumed attacking.

The swords Caten had leapt over earlier came flying back from behind, while Diret’s undead summons lunged forward with savage screeches.

Hm. About what I expected.

Caten narrowed his eyes and reinforced his senses even further.

The corridor remained submerged in absolute darkness.

The flying swords continuously emitted phantom sound waves to interfere with his perception. Lee Han remained hidden under invisibility magic, waiting for an opening.

And yet—

A swordsman who had trained body and instinct to the extreme would always find a path forward.

Mages loved mocking it as crude and primitive, but the art of perfecting one’s own body could never be underestimated.

Now all he had to do was break through the mages ahead and seize the duke—

“!”

BOOM!

Caten instinctively unleashed a sword technique forward.

Telekinetic force slammed into the strike head-on.

The impact made even him recoil in surprise.

“Princess Yukbeltire. Since when did you learn magic like this...?”

“I didn’t cast it.”

“Then it’s a trick?”

But before he could finish speaking, more invisible telekinetic strikes came crashing toward him in rapid succession.

While defending himself against the relentless attacks, Caten finally realized what had been bothering him.

Princess Yukbeltire and Diret were both occupied controlling artifacts and summons.

Neither had the spare focus to launch attacks like these simultaneously.

“...So it was the House Wardanaz junior! How embarrassing. I let prejudice cloud my judgment.”

Tch.

Lee Han clicked his tongue inwardly.

He had hoped Caten would continue suspecting Princess Yukbeltire a little longer.

As the frontline battle mage here, taking point was only natural.

Unfortunately, he really didn’t want to.

“Got you!”

-■■■■■■■!!

An undead monster suddenly closed the distance and pounced on Caten with a monstrous roar.

Diret sighed in relief.

“I don’t know if this will work, but...!”

At Caten’s quiet mutter, a chill ran through Lee Han.

FLASH!

Several projections of Caten suddenly appeared and intercepted the undead and artifacts charging from behind.

At the same moment, the real Caten shot straight toward Lee Han.

Diret shouted in disbelief.

“How does it make any sense to create projections with swordsmanship?!”

That’s exactly what I’d like to know.

Lee Han had no time to answer.

He immediately launched three consecutive bursts of <Wardanaz’s Telekinetic Force>, then leapt backward to widen the distance.

Caten raised his free arm like a shield and charged through the attacks with a roar.

Once.

Twice.

Three times.

It was a reckless gamble.

The instant he stopped advancing to swing properly, the invisible junior would slip away again.

Even reinforced with aura, blocking telekinetic strikes equivalent to fifth-circle magic with nothing but an arm left it mangled and twisted grotesquely.

Caten ignored the injury completely.

He had already achieved his goal.

...I’m finally inside his sword range!

Lee Han activated the two spells he had prepared beforehand—<Lightning Cloak Enchantment> and <Gonadaltes’s Surging Strength>—then threw aside his staff and drew his sword.

At this range, steel was faster than magic.

CLANG!!!

Caten’s aura-infused blade collided with Lee Han’s strike.

The senior laughed in delight.

“Excellent, Junior! To produce this much destructive force without even using aura yet!”

Enhancement magic learned from the Skull Principal.

The wasteful but overwhelming physical reinforcement techniques unique to swordsmen.

And Dawnstar, the sword that devoured an opponent’s mana.

By combining all of them, Lee Han managed to block Caten’s aura-coated strike head-on.

Unlike the delighted senior, however, Lee Han was nearly shaking from the impact.

What kind of monstrous strength is this?!

Even with <Gonadaltes’s Surging Strength> and multiple enhancement spells active, the collision sent shockwaves through his entire body as though he had been struck directly by offensive magic.

The sheer destructive force was absurd.

Just as mages entered an entirely different realm once they formed a Lesser World, Lee Han finally understood why swordsmen capable of using aura were treated as beings on another level.

The moment his precognition spell warned him of the next strike, Lee Han gritted his teeth and charged directly into the storm of attacks.

Instinct told him retreating would only make things worse.

“Hmm!”

Caten had been about to unleash another technique, but Lee Han’s sharp counterattack forced him to step back.

Precognition magic?

Despite his own shortcomings in magic, Caten was knowledgeable enough to recognize the signs.

A junior attending lectures from every school at Einroguard being capable of divination magic wasn’t impossible.

That would explain the counterattack just now.

A second-year unfamiliar with Caten’s swordsmanship shouldn’t have been able to react so precisely otherwise.

Seniors are human too. If I ❖ Nоvеl𝚒ght ❖ (Exclusive on Nоvеl𝚒ght) can just stall for time, the advantage shifts to me! 𝘧𝓇ℯ𝑒𝓌𝑒𝑏𝓃𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘭.𝒸ℴ𝓂

Lee Han rapidly calculated his odds.

Caten was still human.

After using spatial movement techniques, projection techniques, and suffering that arm injury, his mana had to be heavily depleted.

If Lee Han endured long enough, support from Princess Yukbeltire and Diret would eventually overwhelm him.

“Hmm.”

“!”

The next instant, Lee Han realized how naïve that thought had been.

This senior—who had spent years doing nothing but swinging a sword inside the punishment cells while everyone else studied magic—was a monster fully capable of cornering him while injured and low on mana.

BANG! BANG! BANG!

The trajectory... he’s twisting my sword path?!

Lee Han was clearly the one pressing the attack.

Each strike carried enough force to smash apart walls.

And yet every time their blades collided, the momentum of Lee Han’s sword subtly shifted out of alignment.

Only after the fourth strike lost power midway through did he finally understand.

He’s redirecting my attacks!

It was terrifying.

Under ordinary circumstances, it would’ve made sense. Lee Han himself could casually redirect Gainando’s snack-stealing attacks without even looking.

A swordsman vastly superior to Lee Han naturally could do the same.

But this wasn’t an ordinary situation.

Caten was under constant magical bombardment from every direction.

And Lee Han wasn’t merely swinging normally—he was reinforcing every strike with multiple layers of enhancement magic.

Yet Caten calmly redirected all of it while steadily maneuvering Lee Han into an increasingly disadvantageous position.

It was swordsmanship chilling enough to raise goosebumps.

For a brief moment, Lee Han met Caten’s eyes.

Those vertically slit pupils were patiently searching for the perfect moment to counterattack.

Even injured, exhausted, and cornered, they never released their prey.

This won’t work!

Lee Han immediately unleashed his trump card.

The pocket watch released mana, accelerating Lee Han’s personal time.

The instant his speed surged far beyond the limits of ordinary enhancement magic, Caten’s eyes widened.

How enviable. What incredible magical talent.

Even while feeling genuine admiration, his body continued moving instinctively.

His aura-coated sword shifted precisely into the trajectory of Lee Han’s attack.

Lee Han didn’t know it, but what Caten was using now was one of the secret techniques of the Willow Sword style:

Fallen Willow, Remaining Flowers.

The essence of illusionary swordsmanship that redirected attacks and guided opponents into fatal positions.

No matter how exhausted or injured Caten was, brute force alone would never break through it.

Lee Han corrected his stance and struck three times in rapid succession.

Caten redirected all three.

Two more strikes followed.

Again, Caten deflected them cleanly.

“...?”

For the first time that day, Caten sensed something wrong.

Lee Han was no longer moving where the technique guided him.

What is this?

At that exact moment, Lee Han’s invisibility spell shattered.

Seeing his junior’s eyes clearly for the first time, Caten froze.

Lee Han wasn’t being overwhelmed.

Even now, he was still searching for an opening.

Breaking free from the guidance is impressive, but that attack still won’t break through my defense—

KWRRRRNG!

A sound audible only to those highly sensitive to mana rang out through the corridor.

The sound of mana compressing beyond normal limits.

Caten’s eyes widened in horror.

Aura.

Aura was forming on Lee Han’s sword.

Crisis.

Enhancement.

Divination.

Acceleration.

Willpower, pressure, instinct, and determination all converged at once, forcing the mana into a violently condensed plasma-like state no ordinary mana circulation could produce.

The aura fused with the Blue Rock Sword technique Lee Han had learned.

And in a single strike—

BOOM!!!!!!

Fallen Willow, Remaining Flowers shattered apart.

Caten’s sword flew backward through the corridor.

“!”

Oddly enough, Lee Han looked even more shocked than Caten.

He genuinely hadn’t expected to break through.

“...Excellent, Junior!! To think you could use aura!”

Despite being defeated, Caten sounded delighted, as though it were his own accomplishment.

Lee Han wanted to thank him properly.

Unfortunately, the recoil from the time magic and everything else crashed down on his body all at once.

“Ugh... ngh... krgh... thank you... But aura... what are you talking about...?”

“The strike you just used. That was aura. Hmm. That’s probably why your invisibility spell collapsed too.”

Caten nodded thoughtfully.

Aura itself was an abnormal condensation of mana, so it occasionally disrupted surrounding magic.

Even so, witnessing it directly like this was fascinating.

Magic truly was mysterious.

Enduring the pain wracking his entire body, Lee Han forced out another question.

“But the sword didn’t change at all...”

Wasn’t aura supposed to ignite visibly around the blade?

Caten answered with equal confusion.

“That’s what surprised me too. It definitely tried to ignite, but then it got absorbed back inside... Ah.”

“?”

“...Junior. Your sword absorbs mana.”

“...Ah. Right. Sorry.”

Lee Han looked embarrassed.

Thinking about it now, asking why aura wasn’t visibly burning while holding Dawnstar—a mana-devouring obsidian sword—really was absurd.

“Um. Senior?”

“Ask anything.”

“I think you should look behind you first...”

Caten turned around.

Princess Yukbeltire’s flying swords hovered at his throat and vital points, while Diret’s grotesque undead summon loomed overhead with its maw spread wide.

“Ah. I lost. I surrender.”

“...”

“...”

“As someone from the same year, couldn’t you overlook this?”

“Shouldn’t you at least offer compensation first?”

Princess Yukbeltire and Diret both looked ready to tear him apart on the spot.

Watching nervously, Lee Han spoke up.

“Senior Caten, do you have anything valuable?”

Caten answered in a gloomy voice.

“Junior. I have no money. I spent most of my time in the punishment cells, so I couldn’t take commissions or conduct research.”

“...Then just hand over the broken arm or something.”

“Even your healing magic is incredible compared to mine, Junior...”

“Please stop talking.”

Lee Han hurriedly clamped a hand over Caten’s mouth while watching the reactions of the two seniors.