Chapter 10

◈ Chapter 10: Checkmate

"But you don't strike the moment the fever peaks, right?"

"Exactly. That's why now's the time to cash in on that foreshadowing about you observing people's insides."

"I never set that kind of foreshadowing. But whatever."

"You'll be watching the surface of Bell's skin. The moment you spot a muscle twitch—that's your cue."

"And then?"

"Then you set her sword on fire. She doesn't know about your Reinforcement Magic yet. If she's startled enough to break her stance, that's more than enough."

"I'm not sure I can read that split second."

"Kinzo. Remember what we did in the Capital. We've drilled this a hundred times just for this moment."

And so, right now—

Kinzo nailed it.

"Now!"

He shouted and wrapped Bell's wooden sword in a burst of flames.

Bell's eyes flickered.

Just for an instant.

"Dodge!"

It wasn't a long-lasting distraction.

Bell snapped back to her senses, planted both feet on the ground, and closed in like she'd been launched.

She slipped between Kinzo and me.

Pierced straight through the gap.

It happened in a blink.

If Kinzo hadn't interfered, she would have cut through both of us instead of just slipping between.

The air shimmered where her sword had passed.

A deafening crack echoed through the forest.

The rippling heat haze split apart, as if she'd sliced the space itself.

"Hoooh—"

Bell collapsed face-first.

"I dodged. Kinzo, what about you?"

But Kinzo, who had been right beside him, was gone.

"Kinzo?"

He lowered his gaze a little further—right next to Bell's fallen body.

"Kinzo."

Kinzo was clutching his left leg.

"Grrgh... Bell... are you trying to kill me...?"

He glared at her with eyes full of resentment.

"I set her up perfectly, and you just let yourself get hit?!"

"Shut up! It's not the kind of thing you can dodge just because you see it coming! You think everyone's as fast as you?"

"Damn it. Can you stand?"

"Hold on, before that..."

He started rummaging through Bell's clothes.

"No way... no way..."

His hands moved faster.

"It's gone... the map... the map's gone. Amon must have it...!"

His face went pale.

"Using Bell as a delaying tactic... that's a pretty gutsy move for Amon. He planned to trap whoever came here with Bell as bait from the start."

"Mago. This isn't the time to be impressed."

"I know."

He paused to think.

"Kinzo, listen. You're just going to be a liability now."

"I'm well aware of that. Though it stings to have you state it so coldly."

"You said you memorized the map."

"I also said it was a bit of a gamble."

That wasn't a gamble. It was the correct answer.

But I couldn't just say, "I'm from the future, trust me."

Instead, I gave Kinzo something concrete to believe in.

"Still, we'll run into the Instructor along the way. How long to reach the first checkpoint? The timing of meeting the Instructor."

"At least two hours down."

"Then go down."

"Mago, are you serious?"

"If the map you memorized turns out wrong, you can always come back up."

"What about you? Alone?"

"I'll buy us time."

*

Six hours later.

Checkpoint.

"If you want to get past here, you'll have to go through me."

I aimed the tip of my wooden sword at the trainees in front of me.

"If you can."

The odds ahead were nine to one.

Eight.

I was the one holding the line.

I had volunteered to be the gatekeeper of this checkpoint.

Kinzo had said it would take two hours, but with that leg of his, it might take longer.

Three hours, at most.

Until then, I couldn't let a single person through.

"Mago. What the hell are you doing?"

Amon's voice rang out.

"No need to ask. I'm just guarding this spot."

I glanced around.

About twenty trainees had reached the checkpoint, including Bell, Amon, and myself.

More of them were from Group B, the ones wearing blue cloth.

"I asked you where Kinzo is!"

Amon's voice rose even higher.

"Who knows. He could still be coming up. He could be heading down. Or maybe he gave up halfway."

Every trainee had been issued a basic wooden sword.

Literally just wood, with a blunt tip.

Nothing to trigger my phobia, nothing to expose me.

Even if I had to face multiple opponents, I wasn't afraid.

Here. Right now.

I had nothing to fear.

"Then we'll have no choice but to go through you...!"

Amon's neck veins bulged.

"Are you really in the state of mind for that?"

"What?"

"You're alone right now, Amon. I'm not your only enemy."

"What are you talking...?"

At that moment, a wooden sword swung toward the back of Amon's head.

He threw himself sideways, barely dodging.

He rolled once and regained his stance.

"I don't know why, but Bell's down! It's just Amon now!"

"Target Amon!"

The trainees from Group A rushed at him.

The checkpoint wasn't really about fighting me—it was a place where Group A and Group B were supposed to clash.

Especially now that Bell was incapacitated, leaving Amon alone—he was the perfect prey.

"Fine. Come at me all at once...!"

Amon drew his wooden sword and snarled.

Four of Group A were right in front of him.

"Aaaargh!"

The other trainees joined the fray without missing a beat. Red and blue cloth swirled together in a mess of bodies and wooden swords.

"Why is everyone so desperate to fight?! We can trade, you know...!"

"Hand over the map!"

"I'm done... mine's already been taken..."

They all paired off with different opponents. Maps were stolen and stolen again.

I kept my eyes on Amon, who was locked in a four-on-one fight.

Heir to a prestigious family that built its name on the sword. Amon read each opponent's movements, then dismantled them with clean, economical strikes. One by one, calmly, without a wasted motion.

In the end, he knocked all four flat and searched their pockets.

Amon pulled a map with a blue string from a Group A trainee's coat.

"Got it!"

All he had to do was hold onto the map and keep racing.

"Bell...!"

But his partner was still out cold. That was the price he paid for using Bell as a decoy to buy time.

Left with no choice, Amon hoisted Bell onto his back and withdrew from the front line.

The trainees who'd just arrived started fighting too. I counted heads slowly.

Out of the total one hundred trainees, excluding me and Kinzo, ninety-eight should have shown up.

Ninety-four. Ninety-five. Ninety-six.

Two were missing.

"Louise is out, just like in the past life."

The pair that included Louise was nowhere in sight.

"Move, Mago!"

Two trainees with red cloth tied around their arms—Group A. They were holding their team's map. They'd managed to steal it from Group B.

These were the ones who would tail Kinzo once they got past me.

"I told you. No one passes."

"Stop talking crap and get out of the way!"

They charged at the same time.

I sidestepped the wooden sword from the first one, then hooked his leg and tripped him. He spun half a turn and face-planted forward.

The second one came straight at my ribs. Predictable.

Instead of dodging back, I stepped into his swing, avoided the blade, and slammed the pommel of my wooden sword into his side. I repaid his attack in kind.

With a short groan, he hit the ground and dropped his map. The rolled scroll bounced a few times across the dirt.

I picked it up and stuffed it into my inner pocket.

"Guess you'll have to take it back from me."

"Urgh... Mago..."

The sun was setting.

The fight between Group A and Group B dragged on.

After that, four more trainees charged me. Four might sound like a lot, but with only wooden swords in their hands, they weren't a threat. A few swings and they were all crawling at my feet.

Their maps joined mine.

"What the... was Mago always this strong?"

"Mago, I'll just stay here like you said. How about that?"

"I don't know why, but it feels like you're going easy on us, and that's even more annoying!"

"Just phone it in. I don't care about the Special Forces or the Knight Order anyway. Grades don't matter to me."

Voices flew at me from all sides.

I didn't bother answering them one by one.

While I was scanning the area, something came flying toward my shoulder.

I barely caught it an inch before impact.

A long piece of wood.

Whittled from a branch...

"A spear."

It wasn't all that sharp at the tip. The lethality had been deliberately reduced.

I traced its trajectory with my eyes.

Louise was perched in a tree, holding something in both hands.

One was a curved, J-shaped launching device. In her other hand, a straight wooden spear, shaped like an I.

And five more spears were strapped to her back.

She was using the launcher and the spear together—slotting the butt of the spear into the J's curve, then swinging the device to hurl the projectile with more speed and accuracy.

Even the Instructor probably hadn't expected a trainee to craft their own weapons.

Only I knew that Louise could throw spears.

"You caught it...?"

I couldn't hear her voice from this distance, but her lips shaped those words.

She scowled, then moved to another spot.

"So you've been watching."

I'd expected the spear attack. It was within my predictions.

I gripped the spear tight.

"Doesn't matter. It's not sharp anyway."

Louise... where will you go next? Back up into the trees?

"Louise! Let's team up for a second!"

That voice cut through my thoughts. I recognized the owner immediately.

"Bell! You're finally awake!"

Amon's voice rang out with relief.

"I wasn't dead!"

Bell grabbed her wooden sword as soon as she was on her feet.

What made Bell dangerous wasn't her unique magic.

It was that she knew why I was playing gatekeeper.

She knew Kinzo had been hit in the leg, and that fact made her a troublesome opponent.

Armed with that knowledge, she'd do everything she could to stop me from buying time.

"Bell, take the left."

Amon pointed with his finger.

Bell nodded and veered left.

Amon on the right.

Bell on the left.

And Louise—her position was still unknown.

That was when I heard rustling in the bushes.

Close by.

But behind me.

And I still had to keep an eye on Amon and Bell, who were charging in from both sides.

There was no time to take out Louise first.

But I did have a way to handle the spear coming at me from behind.

"Rush him all at once! Three of us can take him!"

Bell's voice rang out.

The Lake—twice a day, for five minutes, spanning fifty meters.

I closed my eyes.

"First one today."

A single droplet fell at my feet.

A calm backdrop settled over everything. A blue wave swept across the dark ground in a wide circle, and every surface it touched rose into sharp focus before my eyes.

Bell—smoke curling from her like the wolf-shaped Demon King's Castle.

Amon—both hands gripping his sword hilt tight.

And Louise behind me.

I saw them all.

"Mago!"

Louise's voice and her spear came at the same time from behind.

A split second before the blunt tip hit my shoulder, I reached one arm back and snatched the spear out of the air.

That just put a weapon in my hand.

I tossed the spear, caught it, spun it half a turn so the point faced the other way—and sent it back along the exact path it had come.

"Does that bastard have eyes in the back of his head...?!"

Amon grinded his teeth.

I focused again.

Another wave rippled outward.

Bell and Amon.

Right and left. Their swords came at me simultaneously.

The faster, stronger attack was obviously from the left—Bell.

I flattened myself to the ground, letting her blade pass over me. Then, still low, I charged Amon like a bull. I drove upward into him from below and sent him flying backward.

Right into the path of Bell's swing.

Her sword cut through the air.

That signature noise rumbled.

Around then, I opened my eyes.

Color flooded back into the world.

Bell's attack detonated with a deafening roar, and everything happened at once.

"Ugh...!"

Louise collapsed, her leg struck by the spear I'd returned.

"Hah..."

Bell crumpled forward.

"Gyaaaah...! Bell...!"

Amon was clutching his own waist, screaming in agony.

When the dust settled, I looked ahead.

Eighty more still standing.

Kinzo... you'd better be making good time. Please. You have to be.

I bent down and scooped up the maps from the fallen trainees.

My pockets were starting to overflow.