The Princess Knight is Too Strong

Surprisingly, humans are among the creatures with the most outstanding endurance and recovery capabilities among all mammals on the entire planet.

Why am I suddenly bringing this up?

It’s because, amazingly, all the freshmen managed to recover their strength to some extent in just 10 minutes and succeeded in standing on their two legs again.

“Now, everyone. Has your body loosened up to some extent?”

Bell Lore continued to address the freshmen with an unchanging smile and polite attitude, using honorifics.

However, the freshmen would no longer be fooled.

They had painfully realized that the fine-looking young man before them was, in fact, a terrifying abuser.

“As you all know, the instructor’s role is to assist with your training, point out deficiencies, and help you fill those gaps.”

Could he not feel the burning gazes directed at him, albeit for a slightly different reason now? Or had he become accustomed to such gazes after receiving them year after year?

Bell Lore continued speaking without concern.

“Therefore, for the second hour… we’ll have a time where each of you will have a mock duel with me.”

At his words, all the freshmen’s eyes widened.

A mock duel means, in other words, being able to legally beat up the opponent in front of you!

“Since I don’t know much about you all yet, if we just start training blindly, I’ll only be able to provide surface-level help.”

At the same time, I could understand why Instructor Lore had forced such an unreasonable jog on the students from the first day.

“So, please show me everything you have to the fullest extent. Your combat style, simple habits, the direction you want to go, strengths and weaknesses. I ask that you reveal all of that to me without filtering.”

Being the only one among the students here who had experienced the battlefield, I understood this all the more.

Unlike ordinary mock duels, when humans enter the battlefield, they tend to lose their composure.

There are various reasons. Excitement, anger, confusion, frustration, fear.

Sometimes only one of these emotions works, and sometimes several emotions mix like a slop bucket and work in combination.

The most representative state from this is losing half of one’s reason and composure.

I know it very well because I’ve experienced it myself.

And Bell Lore, to recreate such a mental state as closely as possible, made the students harbor intense emotions toward him.

In that exact state, he conducts mock duels right after they’ve recovered some stamina.

In other words, he’s creating a situation where they can legally beat him up.

Mistakes, flaws, gaps that can only be revealed in a state of lost composure.

It was a plan for Lore to personally check and correct such weaknesses that the freshmen possessed with his own eyes.

“It may be redundant, but I look forward to working with you.”

Indeed, Polaris was truly Polaris.

The first batter was a female student named Alice Basildar.

I remember her approaching me nervously before the training started.

She seemed to have a fundamentally timid personality, but seeing how she still resolutely tried to speak to me among people, she might unexpectedly have strong determination or a strong heart.

Even looking at her now, isn’t she shooting a terrifying gaze full of killing intent at the white-haired instructor in front of her?

Look at that gaze, filled with the determination to land a hit no matter what.

Her weapon is… a sword spear, is it?

‘…Edged weapons are still a bit uncomfortable.’

But it was much more bearable than I expected. My stomach was churning a bit, though.

Rather than the dreadful dogfight between humans and monsters, this duel between humans following rules reminded me first of my training with Earl Scabbard from 4 years ago, not the war.

Training with Earl Scabbard was hard but fulfilling, and at least it was happy, so I didn’t want to leave room for trauma to slip in between.

Anyway, the characteristics of Alice’s sword spear are as follows:

The blade is thin, and the spine is thick but narrow. It’s basically specialized for thrusting, but it has edges on both sides to enable slashing attacks as well, and the length of the blade and the handle are equal or the handle is slightly longer.

That should summarize it.

On the other hand, Bell Lore’s weapon…

“…A dagger?”

“What is that?”

“Can he even fight properly with such a small knife?”

The freshmen began to murmur when they saw the weapon he was holding.

Bell Lore’s armament was dual daggers.

Smaller in length than a short sword, with handles that barely fit in one hand.

It wouldn’t be strange for bewildered voices to flow among the freshmen.

“…Princess, what do you think?”

Delphina asked in a cautious voice.

Somehow it seemed like the gazes directed at us increased a bit after Delphina spoke… but whatever.

“…Well.”

I was silent for a moment before answering.

“A dagger is a disadvantaged weapon. Regardless of what other weapon it faces, it has no advantages except that it can be secretly hidden in one’s bosom and easily carried.”

“That’s… right.”

Delphina answered, tilting her head. Her expression seemed to say, “Why are you stating the obvious?”

“So, there must be a clear reason why he’s holding that.”

I muttered, crossing my arms and tapping my finger.

“Either he’s extremely confident in his dagger technique, or he’s so strong that he can’t properly match against freshmen unless he uses daggers.”

The expressions of some freshmen who heard my second statement wrinkled.

I hastily added:

“There’s no guarantee that what I’m saying is correct?”

“Ah, it’s starting.”

At someone’s murmur, all the freshmen’s expressions turned toward the center of the training ground.

The first attack, naturally, was from Alice.

Whether skilled or awkward with dagger techniques, a dagger is never a weapon that exists for initiating attacks.

It’s a weapon that exists to deflect an opponent’s attack, dive in, and counterattack at close range.

Sure enough, Instructor Lore slightly tilted his shoulder to narrowly avoid Alice’s strike.

“That was close!”

Someone shouted. But I shook my head and muttered:

“No, he dodged it with ease.”

Rather, to warrant being called “close,” the opponent should stagger greatly while avoiding the attack, to the point where their posture collapses.

Dodging so narrowly means that the movement was perfectly readable from beginning to end.

“Tch…!”

Perhaps she knew that much, as Alice clicked her tongue and withdrew her sword spear.

Given that she didn’t immediately follow up with a combo and pulled back, she seemed to have quickly recognized that she had been read completely.

Cooler-headed than I expected. She does seem to have a strong heart.

By the way, who was that guy who just shouted “That was close!”?

Just then, Alice slightly changed the grip in her right hand.

“Reverse grip?”

Delphina muttered in a puzzled voice.

“Ah, she shouldn’t do that.”

I inadvertently muttered again.

Taking that grip so openly is equivalent to plainly telling the opponent that after one thrust, you’ll follow up with a slashing attack.

If she had changed her grip after thrusting to surprise him with either a downward or upward slash, her chances of success would have been at least slightly higher.

Sure enough, Alice thrust her sword spear toward Lore, clearly exposing her vulnerability.

And naturally, Lore ducked deeply to avoid Alice’s strike.

“Oh, if she does that…”

“Right. Even if the downward slash hits, it won’t lead to a fatal wound.”

Rather, she’s allowing a counterattack.

Moreover, her torso is completely open. At this rate, he’ll definitely counter…

“…Huh?”

But Alice moved differently from my expectations.

Instead of slashing downward, she pulled her foot back to avoid Lore’s dagger.

“Wow…!”

“…”

Delphina exclaimed in admiration, and I silently touched my lips.

Honestly, I was a bit embarrassed. I didn’t expect her to betray my prediction so elegantly.

But looking at Lore’s expression, he didn’t seem to have expected it either, which was somewhat reassuring.

It’s not just me who was embarrassed, right?

And only after breaking Lore’s posture through that feint did Alice bring down the sword spear she had been holding in reverse grip.

Simultaneously, Lore’s left arm moved.

-Clash!!

The blue magical power extending from the tip of the dagger held in reverse grip in his left hand struck the blade of the sword spear from the side, deflecting it.

“Aura!”

“Is it okay to use aura?”

Someone said in a tone suggesting it was unfair.

“…Indeed, there was no rule saying it couldn’t be used.”

Delphina muttered, and several other students nodded in agreement.

And only then did I grasp the core of Lore’s dagger technique.

The foundation of aura used by knights is stamina before magical power.

Since it’s a technique that consumes stamina to wrap magical power around a weapon, it continuously consumes stamina just to maintain it.

And Bell Lore was less out of breath than I was even after running 100km at full speed. If we’re purely looking at endurance, he would undoubtedly be among the top-tier knights in the entire world.

I felt anew that not just anyone could become an instructor at Polaris Academy.

The secret of Lore’s dagger technique was to trust in his endless stamina and extend the aura wrapped around his daggers, wielding what amounted to two lightsabers in an extraordinary swordplay.

Unless you’re a renowned strong figure throughout the entire continent, for a knight with ordinary stamina, it would be a pointless act worse than a stunt that would be pointed at as suicidal just for trying to emulate it.

Therefore, that must be a dagger technique that only he can wield.

“Ugh…!”

Alice frowned, quickly pulling back her sword spear and retreating.

“Was it allowed to use aura?”

“I never said it couldn’t be used.”

Instructor Lore answered in a slick voice. Alice bit her lower lip firmly and wrapped aura around her sword spear as well.

“She gave up on the downward slash.”

Delphina muttered, looking at the form of the aura.

The form of the aura that Alice wrapped around her sword spear was not double-edged but conical.

Close to a jousting lance—specialized only for thrusting.

She could presumably strike with the side like a blunt weapon, but that would be inferior to thrusting with the original form of the sword spear.

She had completely given up on the greatest advantage provided by aura: enhancing sharpness.

“Haaat!!”

Alice shouted a battle cry and charged forward.

Her speed was noticeably faster compared to the beginning, suggesting she had started using magical power to enhance her body as well.

Charging at a speed almost comparable to a mounted cavalryman, Alice thrust her spear toward Instructor Lore.

Though it was only for a moment, Lore’s posture was greatly disturbed this time.

It seems that even for him, avoiding an attack of this speed by the margin of a paper’s thickness was too much.

“He, he dodged it!”

The guy who had shouted “That was close!” earlier now shouted in surprise.

You should just leave. How did you even get into Polaris?

“But this attack is meaningless even if it disrupts the opponent’s posture.”

Delphina said softly.

As she said, speed inevitably comes with disadvantages.

If you can’t fully control that speed, there’s no retreat when the opponent avoids your attack.

More than breaking Lore’s posture, Alice had given away an excessively large opening.

Having seized Alice’s back without even exerting much effort, Lore extended his arm and aimed his dagger as if gently embracing her.

“It’s over, Student Alice.”

“…Tch.”

Alice bit her lip as if frustrated, but a defeat is a defeat.

Since it was a clean result that made excuses impossible, Alice silently nodded and withdrew her aura.

“What do you think, Princess?”

Delphina, who had been watching the match, whispered in my ear and asked.

“Could you win?”

After thinking for a moment, I answered honestly.

“…If I don’t go all out, I don’t think I could win.”