Chapter 531: The Grand First-Year Combat Festival: Gentle Gale Vs the Jewel of Ash III

The whole Arena was filled with cheers as the battle between two of the most precious Ladies of the Kingdom continued.

The sound of the spectators rolled through the enormous structure in waves, with one section shouting the name of Lady Selena Galehart while another answered with the name of Lady Vera Ashenlocke.

The fight had reached a point where neither side of the audience seemed willing to sit quietly anymore.

Selena had Vera pinned in place while she was preparing a new Wind Alchemy attack, and to many of the High-ranking Alchemists among the spectators, it seemed like she had finally found a way to win this match.

The wind pressure covering the fight area continued pushing downward with tremendous force.

Snow was pressed against the platform instead of being blown away, while small pieces of broken stone trembled beneath the pressure. Selena stood at the center of the storm, maintaining her Mass Alchemy with Cognis flowing continuously through her body, her closed fan acting as the focus through which she controlled the wind.

Vera, meanwhile, remained beneath the pressure.

She was still standing.

Her boots had already cracked the platform beneath them, and her body was being forced downward by the immense force Selena had created, but she hadn’t fallen.

To the High-ranking Alchemists watching from the important guest seats, that alone was enough to make the situation difficult to judge.

Selena had successfully restricted Vera.

She had prevented Vera from simply using her terrifying speed to rush forward.

And now she was preparing another Wind Alchemy attack.

It looked like a finishing move.

That was what all the High-ranking Alchemists among the spectators would believe if only the Flower Selena was facing wasn’t Vera Ashenlocke.

"Mmm... I see."

Vera said casually.

"I guess I have been caught."

She said it so casually that it was clear she didn’t care about being in a situation like this.

The wind pressure continued pressing down against her body.

Her black hair was pushed around her face, the ends of it moving with the currents that slipped through the pressure field, yet Vera didn’t bother moving it away.

She simply stood there with the two mysterious handguns still in her hands.

Selena watched her carefully.

Vera still looks really calm, which means she must have an answer to this situation.

Selena thought to herself, faintly worried by Vera’s casual calmness.

She had expected Vera to show at least some reaction.

A change in her breathing.

A shift in her expression.

Perhaps even a sign that the pressure was beginning to become too much.

But there was nothing.

Vera’s expression remained the same.

But, isn’t that how she always is?

Selena’s emerald eyes narrowed slightly.

Ahh... I really can’t tell.

She continued feeding Cognis into the Mass Alchemy.

The wind around the battlefield roared louder, but Selena forced her breathing to remain even.

But I’m not going to give up.

Not now...

Her eyes remained fixed on Vera.

Then another thought slipped into her mind.

...that I have the opportunity to show off to Sir Ezra that I’m the better on...

Selena’s expression almost changed.

No.

That thought isn’t elegant, Selena Galehart.

What are you thinking?

Her mind immediately became crowded with different thoughts, and all of them came from the same desire.

She wanted to get ahead of Vera.

Not just in the fight.

Not just as a Flower.

She wanted to get ahead of Vera in what she felt as their rivalry for Ezra’s heart.

Selena’s elegant expression remained on her face, hiding the mess of thoughts running through her mind.

Vera, however, could clearly see through what Selena was thinking.

Even though Selena’s expression gave almost nothing away to anyone else, Vera’s eyes remained on her with the same quiet attention.

For someone like Vera...

Selena was like an open book.

"What do you even know about my Dancer to fall in love with him?"

Vera said plainly.

The words came out so suddenly that Selena’s concentration almost broke.

Her emerald eyes widened.

"Ehn?"

Selena quickly looked at Vera.

She immediately forced her expression back into its elegant state, but the brief surprise had already appeared.

"W-What do you mean by I don’t know anything about... Ezra? I made sure to do my research, I will have you know."

She said, her voice cracking slightly.

Vera looked at her.

"So, you’re admitting you’re a stalker."

She said it casually.

Selena’s eyebrow twitched.

"I’m not a stalker... I just happened to listen to the news about him."

She answered back, defending herself.

Vera’s dull black eyes remained on her.

"So, your knowledge about My Inventor is only surface level, and you dare think of yourself as my rival? How dare you."

She said matter-of-factly, as though Selena had committed some obvious offense.

There was no anger in her voice, nor did she sound particularly offended.

And somehow, that made her words even worse.

While she spoke, Vera’s legs dug deeper into the ground from the force of the wind pressing down hard on her body.

The soles of her boots scraped against the platform.

Small cracks spread outward.

Selena noticed the movement.

Yet even while Vera’s body was being forced downward, her voice remained calm.

"I..."

Selena wanted to speak.

She wanted to defend herself.

She wanted to tell Vera that she did know Ezra.

But there was nothing she could think of that would truly defend her.

Because in all honesty...

She didn’t know anything about Ezra Ashenlocke.

All she knew was the little truth about Ezra’s life in his own family House and how they treated him.

She knew that his relationship with the Sterling House hadn’t been simple.

She knew enough to come to the conclusion that his childhood hadn’t been something she could casually ask about.

But she didn’t know how Ezra felt during all those times.

She didn’t know what he thought when his own family, especially twin brother looked down on him.

She didn’t know what he felt when he stood alone.

She didn’t even know what kind of life he lived during the Trial of Steel.

She didn’t even know if Ezra’s personality had been like this before he went into the Trial of Steel.

The Ezra she knew had already been changed by everything that had happened to him.

But how much?

Selena didn’t know.

She only knew the Ezra that she had fallen in love with.

The person who had shocked the whole Craftsmanship world of Britannia.

The boy who claimed he didn’t know how to play the piano and then ended up mesmerizing the whole crowd during the Club Tournament.

The Ezra who kept doing amazing things that shocked everyone.

The Ezra who could stand in the middle of a situation that should have made anyone nervous and still maintain that strange calm expression.

That was the Ezra she knew.

Nothing about his past, and nothing about his true self.

Selena’s eyes lowered slightly.

The wind continued roaring around her, but for a brief moment, she barely heard it.

Every time Selena watched Vera and Ezra converse, her heart ached for the day when she could speak to Ezra the same way Vera did.

Vera could casually call him her Dancer.

She could tease him.

She could speak to him without hesitation.

And Ezra strangely accepted it.

Maybe it was because of his plain personality.

But he never seemed to care about Vera’s weirdness.

Selena wanted that.

She wanted to know what Ezra liked.

What he disliked.

What made him angry.

What made him happy.

What kind of person he had been before Britannia began watching him.

She wanted to know the person behind all the amazing things everyone else was beginning to see.

Selena looked at Vera with a faint sad expression.

"I truly know nothing about him."

She muttered to herself.

The words were quiet, but they were honest.

"But..."

Selena raised her eyes again.

Something had changed in them.

The sadness was still there, but it no longer controlled her.

Her focus sharpened.

It was no longer only the focus she needed to maintain her Mass Alchemy.

It was the focus of someone who had finally decided what she wanted.

She wanted to know more about the man she had finally found to be her love.

"I am determined to know more, Vera, and I will."

Her voice became firmer.

"I won’t allow you to keep him all to yourself."

Selena’s fingers tightened around her closed fan.

"I will make sure I take him away from you with everything I have, starting right here."

The wind continued to circle around her.

Her long emerald hair was pulled behind her by the currents, and the emerald glow of the Wind Alchemy Circle reflected across her face.

"I will defeat you and climb on to the next round, showing my conviction."

Her emerald eyes became even sharper.

"I don’t care if you don’t see me as a rival, but I do see you as my own rival Vera, and I will win this fight to prove that I’m worthy."

Selena said it with a more focused tone than she had ever used before.

For the first time since the beginning of when Vera questioned her knowledge of knowing Ezra, there was no hesitation in her voice.

Her other hand finally formed the Novice-rank Wind Alchemy Circle.

The formation took longer than normal.

The reason was simple.

A huge amount of Selena’s Cognis was already being fed into the Mass Wind Alchemy.

Maintaining the massive pressure field alone required constant Cognis.

So, forming another Alchemy at the same time made the process even more difficult.

The emerald lines appeared slowly between her fingers.

One Alchemy Symbol connected to another.

The Circle became clearer.

Selena didn’t stop.

She kept feeding Cognis into the Mass Alchemy while forcing the second Circle to form.

A faint smile appeared on Vera’s face.

It was barely there, little more than a slight movement at the corner of her lips.

"That doesn’t sound so elegant, Miss Softy."

She said lightly.

Selena’s eyes widened slightly.

"I think I have played with your delusions enough."

Vera began to move down.

"Huh?"

Selena blinked in shock.

Her eyes immediately dropped toward Vera’s legs.

How?

How is she moving so casually?

She asked herself, unable to process what Vera was doing.

The wind pressure hadn’t weakened.

Selena was certain of it.

Her Cognis was still flowing through the Mass Alchemy.

The pressure should have remained strong enough to keep Vera’s body forced downward.

Yet Vera’s knee moved.

Her body lowered.

Her boot shifted.

It wasn’t the movement of someone losing strength.

It was controlled.

Vera was deliberately changing her posture.

Some of Vera’s fans immediately went into a panic attack because they assumed she was falling down from exhaustion.

"She’s falling!"

"Lady Vera Ashenlocke!"

"Nooooooo!"

"She can’t hold it anymore!"

"I can’t watch this happen!!"

"Is this really going to happen?!!"

Their voices rose above the crowd.

But Vera wasn’t falling.

Her body lowered until she could position herself properly beneath the pressure.

Her two mysterious handguns remained in her hands.

She didn’t drop them.

She didn’t even seem bothered by the shouting.

"Selena..."

Vera said lightly, as she placed her body into a running stance.

One leg moved backward.

The other planted itself against the cracked platform.

Her upper body leaned forward slightly.

Her head remained raised.

"Do you know why a lot of us Alchemists in the same Alchemist rank have different natural physical stats from the other?"

She asked.

Cognis began to flow through Vera’s body.

It wasn’t a violent surge.

There was no huge burst of Cognis light.

Instead, more Cognis moved through her entire body, passing through her muscles and reinforcing them.

Her arms.

Her legs.

Her torso.

Her entire body.

The pressure continued pushing downward.

Yet Vera’s muscles held.

Selena stared at her in complete disbelief.

Her focused expression now carried a faint trace of fear.

The wind pressure was still on Vera.

The Mass Alchemy hadn’t stopped.

Nothing had changed from Selena’s side.

And yet Vera was moving her body almost effortlessly.

Which meant...

"She could have attacked me all this while."

Selena muttered to herself.

The realization devastated her.

Vera had been standing there the entire time.

She had allowed Selena to prepare the Mass Alchemy.

She had allowed Selena to maintain the pressure.

She had allowed Selena to form another Alchemy Circle.

She had even allowed Selena to explain her entire strategy.

Selena had thought she had finally trapped Vera.

But Vera had apparently never been trapped.

She had simply been watching.

Selena’s chest tightened.

The confidence she had gained only moments earlier threatened to disappear.

But she refused to let that happen.

She was still fighting.

She still had her Alchemy.

She still had her plan.

And most importantly, she hadn’t surrendered.

Selena’s fingers tightened around her fan.

Her Emerald eyes became firm again.

"I can still win!"

She shouted slightly.

Her voice carried through the wind.

She pressed more Cognis into her Novice-rank Wind Alchemy Circle.

The emerald Alchemy Symbols brightened.

The Circle completed.

The wind began gathering around it.

A small portion of air from the surrounding pressure field was pulled toward the Circle, twisting into a sharper flow.

The Wind Alchemy ignited.

A sharp wind blade formed.

The blade compressed as more wind gathered around it, giving the attack enough force to tear through the air pressure.

Then it flew from the Alchemy Circle.

The attack shot directly toward Vera.

Vera looked at it.

Her dull black eyes followed the wind blade as it approached.

She didn’t appear surprised.

Her expression didn’t change in the slightest.

"No answer, I see."

Vera said matter-of-factly.

Her body remained lowered beneath the pressure, her legs already positioned to move at a moment’s notice. The two mysterious handguns remained firmly in her hands.

"Well, you can always learn about this another time."

She said lightly.

The wind blade continued forward.

The distance between it and Vera disappeared rapidly.

Then...

BOOM!