There’s Something Special About Her - Chapter 76

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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 76.
“……Me?”
“Yeah. You.”
Hanno Becker standing beside me had gone white as a sheet.
He’d always been nervous by nature, and the very act of fighting terrified him.
“In, instructor…….”
Hanno Becker called out to Grau pleadingly, but it was no use.
“Why are you calling me? Don’t you know the rule—you can’t refuse a duel challenge from the class instructor?”
“But…….”
“Move quickly, or I’ll drag you out myself, Hanno Becker.”
At Grau’s threat, Hanno Becker shuffled nervously toward the center, shoulders hunched up to his ears.
He was handed an identical wooden staff, but it was immediately clear he had no idea how to use it.
The awkward way he gripped it with both hands made that obvious.
Whoosh, whoosh—
In contrast, Casper Ashbach was twirling the wooden staff with casual flair, utterly at ease.
He clearly had some experience handling similar weapons.
“All right then, begin!”
What started with Instructor Grau’s voice was no duel at all.
It was one-sided brutality.
Crack! Thwack!
In no time, Hanno Becker was sprawled on the ground.
No real exchange of blows, no counterattack worth mentioning.
“Your bulk sure makes for satisfying impact!”
“Hahaha!”
At Casper Ashbach’s remark, Grau burst out laughing.
The way he clutched his belly and cackled made him look less like an instructor and more like an audience member watching some ridiculous play.
“Isn’t this going a bit far?”
“What do you mean? It’s just good fun. Hehe!”
The trainees attending the Weapon Arts class with us had split reactions.
Some looked uncomfortable and pitied Hanno Becker, while others tittered and mocked him.
“That bastard!”
I was the type cursing Casper Ashbach under my breath.
Since we’d gotten tangled up at the checkpoint, we’d shared a room for a time and eaten face-to-face at every meal—Hanno Becker and I had grown close.
I supposed you could call us friends.
Watching someone like that get beaten down so mercilessly made my blood boil.
“Hanno, get up! Attack back!”
I cupped my hands and shouted, but Hanno Becker only curled up tighter, shielding his head.
Not that a few words of encouragement would change anything—or he wouldn’t be taking a beating in the first place.
Thwack! Crack! Bang!
“Coward! What a waste of that body!”
What started as casual laughter as Casper Ashbach toyed with Hanno Becker began to take on genuine emotion—venom seeping into every swing of his staff.
Yet Grau only watched with that cruel smile, showing no sign of stopping him.
“Huff, you sluglike wretch!”
Casper Ashbach had always had it out for Hanno even before this.
It was petty jealousy—envying a physical talent he himself lacked.
And once he’d learned that Hanno Becker, despite his appearance, was timid by nature and aimed for the humanities track rather than the martial path, he’d begun tormenting him openly.
So this was, plainly put, violence.
When Casper Ashbach finally dropped his staff and began using his feet, trying to stomp Hanno Becker further, my patience snapped.
Staying silent any longer would make me complicit—just as bad as the perpetrator.
“That’s enough——”
“Casper Ashbach, that’ll do.”
But Maximilian Degreve cut in before me, his voice louder and more commanding.
He shot sharp looks at both Ashbach and Grau in turn, then strode purposefully into the center of the Training Grounds.
He bent and picked up the fallen staff from the ground.
“Fight me.”
“You?”
“That’s right. It seems you have some experience with this kind of weapon, and so do I. Let’s have a proper match then. That’s what a real duel is.”
At the nobleman’s pointed words, Ashbach’s eyebrows twitched with displeasure.
But I didn’t think he’d actually accept Maximilian’s challenge.
“Hmm, I don’t feel like it.”
There it was.
“Why not?”
“Why do I need a reason? I just don’t feel like fighting you.”
He clearly didn’t have the confidence to beat Degreve.
And Ashbach went so far as to sneer at him.
“Outside these walls you might have had your way with everything, but not here. You should learn that refusal is an option.”
“What did you say?”
The nobleman stiffened as if he might lunge forward at any moment, struck by the comment.
Then Ashbach turned to Grau with an aggrieved cry.
“Instructor! I’m the one conducting class today, aren’t I? This man Degreve seems to be trying to take over my role!”
“No, that’s not what I—”
“Trainee Ashbach is correct. Stand down, Maximilian Degreve.”
The nobleman exhaled sharply, barely containing his frustration, but with the instructor having spoken, he had no choice but to withdraw.
In the meantime, I’d helped Hanno Becker to his feet and returned him to his spot.
“Ughh……”
He limped out of the Training Grounds, already in wretched condition.
His once-clean training uniform bore puncture marks where Ashbach had jabbed the staff’s end repeatedly, and his hair lay matted with cold sweat, tangled and disheveled.
And worst of all—
“Hanno, your nose is bleeding.”
“What? I, is it really……”
Seeing him flinch at the sight of his own blood, every flavor of fury welled up inside me.
It wasn’t like me to roll up my sleeves and jump in just because someone was in trouble.
But watching Hanno Becker sitting there with blood dripping from his nose, I found myself burning not just at Ashbach, but at my own hesitation, my failure to act sooner.
“Instructor Grau, may I select another opponent for a duel?”
“Do as you please.”
“Ha! Much obliged!”
Ashbach smirked and started pointing his staff at various trainees again.
And this time too, the round end of the staff came to rest in our direction.
“Eek!”
Hanno Becker let out a terrified squeak, thinking he’d been picked again.
But he hadn’t been.
“Runelk Ains.”
Casper Ashbach called out my name.
***
The ability to choose is a privilege.
Whether you have wealth, strength, or great power.
“Hey, Runelk! Don’t start crying that it hurts, will you?”
In that sense, facing Ashbach, I found myself in a position where I had a choice.
Win against that grinning bastard, or lose.
Casper Ashbach was fairly strong.
As the saying goes, even rotten fish has some value—and however inferior he might be, he’d received all manner of training since childhood.
So Runelk Ains from the Action Corps losing to Casper Ashbach made sense.
‘The problem is I don’t want to.’
I flexed and relaxed my grip on the wooden staff, turning the thought over.
I’d never thought of myself as stubborn or as someone with a strong competitive drive.
To achieve my goals, I’d knelt down any number of times.
That’s how I survived, climbed Wickes’s power ladder, and finally achieved my revenge.
But this was different.
‘I refuse to let that bastard gloat about winning.’
To cool my head, I looked away from Ashbach toward where the other trainees stood.
Instead, the heat in me only intensified.
‘What is that idiot worried about right now?’
Hanno Becker was staring at me with drooping eyes, blood streaming from his nose that he’d roughly dabbed with his training uniform sleeve.
His face said he was worried sick.
‘Damn it.’
I was rubbing the back of my neck, stiff with frustration, when—
My eyes met Maximilian Degreve’s.
“Don’t you dare lose, Runelk Ains.”
The nobleman stood with arms crossed, watching me intently, and spoke.
“You beat me once. It would be absurd for you to lose to a wretch like him. So win. No matter what. If you lose, you’ll answer to me.”
It was a word of encouragement.
An exhortation to keep fighting hard and win, even if it was painful.
But his words carried a different weight for me.
‘That’s right. It was a Decision Victory, but I already beat the top student, didn’t I?’
So beating Ashbach wouldn’t exactly break my character, would it?

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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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