I Thought Your Friend's Sibling Wasn't a Girl? - Chapter 10

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Episode 10
Between the two who faced each other, tension hung thick in the air.
Aiden still seemed full of displeasure, yet he did not forget his duty as a training instructor and soon prepared himself to engage in the duel with seriousness.
And Olivia was no different.
This was her first formal sparring with a Real Sword.
Olivia gripped the hilt a bit more tightly.
“You’re nervous?”
“Instructor, forgive me for overstepping, but might I offer one piece of advice?”
“Go ahead.”
Aiden answered thus and let out a small laugh.
“You’ll come to admit it. Someday, without fail.”
Why his mood had soured just now when he saw Olivia and Bennett together—what the true nature of that feeling was.
That it stemmed from something far deeper than simply cherishing his friend’s sister.
Olivia spoke thus and fixed Aiden with a glare.
Aiden said nothing for a long while.
Then he began explaining the rules of the duel as if he had heard nothing at all.
“The rule is simple. If you draw blood on me within ten minutes, you win. If you fail, you’ll head straight to the other Training Ground and start basic training from the beginning.”
“……Draw blood?”
“Anywhere, by any means. Even the shallowest wound will end the duel at once. I’ll excuse you from today’s training. How does that sound?”
A crooked smile played at the corners of Aiden’s mouth as he spoke.
“Of course, I won’t make it that easy.”
Though his words seemed deliberately designed to provoke her competitive spirit, Olivia’s mind was wholly consumed by the word “blood.”
Suddenly, her confidence evaporated.
Olivia was accustomed to sparring, but not to wounding someone.
“Shall we begin?”
Aiden declared the duel lightly.
There was no formal greeting that was customary at the start of a duel.
‘Everything must be like real combat.’
That was simply how Aiden conducted his training.
Spring sunlight glimmered faintly in his eyes, and something cold settled there; his body’s weight shifted downward.
He regarded Olivia as if facing an enemy.
Olivia felt a primal fear at his demeanor.
“Aren’t you coming?”
Aiden opened his mouth, as if mocking her hesitation.
“Then I’ll go first.”
Whoosh.
With those words, Aiden’s form vanished from her sight.
Olivia instinctively raised her blade to guard her head.
Clang!
A sharp sting shot through her wrist.
A blade far harder than those the students carried.
A blade that seemed immovable in any collision struck directly against the one Olivia held raised.
At the same moment, their eyes met at close range.
His face devoid of any hint of laughter, he offered a terse instruction.
“Never take your eyes off your opponent. That’s the most basic rule.”
From then on, it was chaos.
She parried the blade as it lunged at her throat as though it would claim her life, and while evading, she counterattacked just as fiercely.
With each clash, the sound of clashing steel grew duller as the blades collided repeatedly.
Unable to anticipate his swordwork at all, she found herself merely defending.
He showed her no mercy, as if to demonstrate her limits.
Olivia was relentlessly driven back by his strength.
Whoosh!
His blade swept past her face once more.
Several strands of hair drifted through the air, severed.
It was a blade threatening enough to make her heart clench with terror.
By then, Olivia could no longer regard her opponent as a “close acquaintance” or “betrothed.”
Olivia gritted her teeth and deployed every tactic she could muster.
Kicking up dust from the ground, striking at vital points.
Of course, Aiden evaded it all with remarkable ease.
Time continued its relentless march.
Ten minutes had never seemed so long.
Olivia tightened her grip on the hilt as this thought crossed her mind.
Her palm was already slick with sweat.
“So you’re the top student? You’re not as impressive as I thought.”
Aiden taunted her deliberately.
The moment his words reached her ears, indignation surged in Olivia’s chest.
His remark was as good as dismissing all her past efforts entirely.
“Don’t judge me so carelessly!”
It was as she lunged at him with those words.
Olivia’s eyes met his, drawn so very close.
That gaze held no mockery, no derision, nothing of the sort.
It was merely the eye of one observing an opponent.
Only then did she understand.
She had been thinking about this all wrong.
Aiden dodged her attack with ease and spoke.
“To see you fall for such a simple provocation…”
“Hng.”
“You still have a long way to go.”
Thud!
She felt herself seized with tremendous force.
When consciousness returned, Aiden filled her entire vision, and beneath her back she felt the cold earth of the Training Ground.
A throbbing pain reached her an instant later.
But Aiden did not declare the duel ended.
“You still have one minute left.”
“Hng—! Let, let me go!”
“If you ask an enemy to release you, will they say ‘Oh dear, of course!’ and let you go? You must free yourself. Think carefully. How can you escape?”
He pinned both her wrists with one hand and completely immobilized her legs with his own.
In his other hand, a Dagger—produced at some point—was held ready.
The sharpened blade gleamed coldly, its point aimed precisely at her throat where the carotid artery ran.
She could move only her toes and shoulders, but even that seemed suppressed by the flashing blade before her.
“Twenty seconds gone. Real enemies won’t wait for you so patiently.”
She burned with fury.
Olivia had to defeat Aiden.
She had no choice—their very relationship demanded it.
Only by defeating him could she remain safely at his side.
This duel changed nothing of that reality.
Olivia’s mind raced at frantic speed.
“Monster Classification is a most fascinating discipline. We are those who know monsters better than anyone.”
“Professor, should not the classification criteria include Weakness? Perhaps we could group monsters with shared Weaknesses under the same category.”
“Ah, Weakness! Yes, very important indeed. To know a creature’s Weakness, one must observe it relentlessly. Every living thing instinctively moves to protect its Weakness. If you grasp that movement, finding the Weakness becomes far easier.”
Olivia was very skilled at discerning an opponent’s Weakness.
She drew a deep breath and calmed her mind.
She had to observe coolly.
Only then would the Weakness reveal itself.
She tested her restrained hands with a subtle twist.
There was no give.
The same held true when she tried moving her legs or other limbs.
All the while, Aiden gazed down at the Olivia writhing beneath him with cold, unshaken eyes.
No agitation showing in his expression. And yet…
“Weakness. I’ve found it.”
If you truly intended to cut short an enemy’s life, you wouldn’t adjust the position of the hand holding the Dagger with such delicate precision, would you, Aiden?
“What?”
“I found it. The way to escape.”
With those words, Olivia jerked her head upward with tremendous speed.
So much so that the blade’s tip could have bitten into the skin of her neck.
And that gambit succeeded perfectly.
The instant the blade’s edge grazed her skin, he pulled back sharply.
Sensing the grip on her wrists weaken, Olivia immediately wrenched her arms free, grasped his shoulder, and rolled to the side.
Thud!
Then she quickly drew a Dagger from her thigh and pointed it at him.
The two Daggers collided with a sharp cry.
Their positions had reversed entirely; their breaths tangled in the narrow space between them.
“You just—”
“That was your Weakness, Instructor.”
“That method only works on me. You’d stake your own life on a threat?”
“That’s exactly why it’s a Weakness. There’s no universal Weakness shared by all, is there?”
Olivia replied thus with a bright smile.
Aiden cannot wound Olivia.
Now she understood that fact with crystalline clarity.
That alone was a tremendous gain.
The two Daggers pressed and retreated, pressing and retreating, held in tense equilibrium.
It felt like a mirror of their situation, and Olivia let out a quiet laugh.
Their eyes met at close range.
Their breath remained ragged, and between their pressed bodies, despite the lethal scene, flowed a lukewarm warmth.
Thump, thump.
Whether from the violent exertion or some other cause, her heartbeat quickened steadily.
In that moment, everything but Aiden seemed to blur into obscurity.
Ding.
“Ten minutes. Time.”
He withdrew his blade and rose, speaking as he did.
“Escaping a pinned state is praiseworthy, but that wasn’t the condition for victory. Since you failed to wound me, this duel—”
“No, Instructor.”
Olivia cut him off with a meaningful smile.
“Instructor, there’s a wound on your shoulder…”
One of the students who had been watching their duel intently opened her mouth carefully.
She was right.
More precisely, between shoulder and neck.
On that very spot where Olivia had seized him, a red mark remained, as if raked by fingernails.
“I wanted you to think of me every time you saw a wound, so I left it in a place where it would be very visible.”
“……Ha.”
“How is it? You’re grateful, yes?”
The duel was Olivia’s victory.
Upon seeing her smile brightly, something flickered behind Aiden’s eyes.
He found himself thinking that perhaps his nape was burning from the heat of the day.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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