宅男天堂

Quinie first thought of this item after the monster raid.

Before the monster raid, Quinie was among those who had been warned about the attack by Frondier.

Not only her, but many believed in Frondier\'s words.

Several students, and almost all teachers, were prepared for the attack in advance.

How could they believe Frondier\'s words?

Malia, Frondier\'s mother, provided the answer.

"Alex confessed."

"Yes. Frondier pretended to be on the same side as Elysia and bluffed Alex with \'I find you suspicious\', and it worked."

Bluffing, indeed. It was so like Frondier.

"What kind of bluffing was it?"

"It was about a possible switch. Alex was in league with Renzo and Elysia, right? So, Renzo\'s failure meant Alex had been switched. The real Alex had disappeared somewhere, and you are the fake Alex. That was the gist. Quite shameless. It was actually Frondier who had interfered with Renzo."

Quinie agreed wholeheartedly with the fact that Frondier was shameless.

But a switch…

"Surely, there\'s an item like that."

"Well, yes. The level of magical engineering these days is astounding. But such products that mimic another person\'s face, the higher their fidelity, the more incredibly expensive they are. And they are mostly single-use."

"So, it\'s possible if you have enough money?"

"……Quinie."

Malia looked at Quinie with half-closed eyes. Quinie just smiled broadly.

Understanding Quinie\'s intent, Malia sighed. As if there was no helping it, she gave a light warning.

"You can\'t use it on school grounds, right? It\'s against the school rules."

...And now.

\'School rules really are important!\'

Quinie regretted her choice as she saw the crowd of students approaching her.

I should have listened to the teacher after all.

* * *

Thud, I rolled on the ground again. The yawn of the Kraken next to me grated on my nerves.

Staggering to my feet, Pascal approached me with a deadpan expression.

Pascal mouthed the words.

[Concentrate!]

[Do I look like I\'m not concentrating?]

It looked like a mistake could kill me.

Even though I knew Pascal\'s attacks were meant to train me, they were merciless. I was certain. Pascal had never taught anyone before. That\'s why his control was so terrible.

Clang, clang!

My hands stung from striking the sword.

[Student Frondier, you are letting your weapons rust.]

[I know that! But it doesn\'t make sense to use aura right here!]

If it had been any other shoddy weapon, it would have been destroyed by Pascal\'s aura already. It\'s only because it\'s \'Neil Jack\'s shortsword\' that it holds up.

[You\'ve misunderstood me.]

Pascal twisted his sword and thrust it towards my shoulder. The colliding swords made a sound from the friction.

[The \'weapon\' I\'m talking about is you. Yourself.]

[...What?]

[You fended off my weapon in the last moment of our duel, didn\'t you?]

[As you know, that wasn\'t aura.]

[Whether it\'s aura or not isn\'t important.]

What does that mean?

I pushed Pascal\'s sword away and created some distance between us.

[Frondier, think.]

Pascal said that, but my mind only became more confused.

However, Pascal looked through me and slowly moved his lips again.

[You can already use aura.]

"What...?"

That was when it hit me.

I had thought Pascal\'s statement was nonsensical, but for some reason, I felt a strange sense of déjà vu.

It was completely different, but it felt like I had heard something similar before.

Oddly, the first thing that came to mind was the voice of the Slevb I had killed in my first dungeon.

-So, am I still unable to reach his sword.

Why that voice came to mind now.

The next was Renzo\'s voice.

-You seemed like an interesting fellow, but you’re just a novice, aren’t he?

Then came Empress Philly\'s voice.

-Frondier, you don\'t know how to use aura?

Each of these words flashed through my mind. Somehow, phrases I hadn\'t even thought of before brushed past my ears.

And finally.

When Azier\'s words crossed my mind.

-You can already use \'Falling Edge.\' It\'s clumsy, but.

"…Huh?"

I let out a sound without realizing it.

Why could I use \'Falling Edge\'? No matter how hard I tried to follow and replicate what I saw on WizardGram, \'Falling Edge\' was originally─

It was only then that I remembered.

Something I had known for a very long time, and had even thought about recently.

A cliché setting of the world of Etius.

Mana and aura are fundamentally the same substance.

Realizing all of this, the words I finally uttered were.

"…Huh?"

I was still hopelessly clueless.