It was a day when a pure white wind was blowing.

"That old man, bothering me to go to the academy..."

On that day, I was a freshman who had just arrived at the academy, and I was a common delusional patient who thought that studying alone was better than learning at the academy.

The old man had said to me, who didn't want to go to the academy.

-Instead of that, why don't you try going once? You should go to the academy, make some friends, and even date.

-I don't need to. There are plenty of girls who like me even if I don't go to a place like that, you know?

-You arrogant brat.

He told me to come out of my small cage and see the wide field.

At that time, I thought the old man's words were just meddling. That he was doing it because he felt sorry for me, stuck in the magic tower.

Maybe it was meddling. At that time, I was holed up in the magic tower, living like a mean-tempered son of a bitch.

So, on that day too, I was angry.

I had no pride in the academy.

I wasn't looking forward to academy life.

"Haa... this is annoying."

I hated the sight of those guys talking about trivial things. Because I couldn't stand things that looked childish.

Yes.

-Fuck! Chocolate!

-Here you go.

-Hee hee!

Like those guys.

Just as I was about to quietly leave this uninteresting academy.

-Thump!

A freshman who wasn't looking where she was going had gotten on my nerves.

"Ah."

I thought I had bad luck from the first day. I was planning to stay quietly in the dormitory, but I was annoyed because of the people who were disturbing even that.

"...I'm sorry."

Until I saw her face.

'What... what is that.'

A wind had blown in the noble desert.

Without a knock.

Without a greeting.

The wind that had blown into the heart of the noble wolf had crawled into a burrow and had no intention of leaving.

Yes.

"...Why are you."

Just like now.

With a trembling heart, Luin's eyes began to lose their way.

"..."

Because he had met the person he wanted to meet the least in this place.

Pink hair.

Innocent eyes that seemed to contain all the freshness in the world.

The girl with an innocent face that looked like she couldn't kill a single ant was looking at him with a cold expression.

"..."

With eyes that held emotions completely different from the ones he held.

When Luin saw the golden handkerchief, which signified the qualification of a 'king', tied to the sleeve of the girl who had given him the most mysterious moment of his life, he wanted to curse at the god who must be somewhere.

Why do you like such dog-like coincidences so much?

Luin, who was beginning to hate the harsh world, lowered his head and opened his mouth to her in a low voice.

"Yuria."

"..."

As expected, there was no answer.

"Damn it..."

The feeling of calling a name filled with old memories was not a good one. Because he knew what he had to do from now on.

-Grip.

"If I had known this, I would have sent Mikhail. No... he probably wouldn't have come because he had to have a match anyway."

Luin muttered to himself, resenting Mikhail who had fallen for Schuen's provocation.

"He told me not to fall for provocations... that son of a bitch."

After losing his magic, he had lost everything. No, to be precise, I made myself lose everything.

Because of my arrogance, I had said that I could see into Yuria's inner self, and I had said bad things to Yuria, who was absorbed in magic.

This was a piece of trash that couldn't even be excused.

After that, after losing my magic, many things started to go wrong, and in the process, I also realized what a twisted person I was.

It wasn't a bad experience.

At that time, it was so hard that I wanted to die, and I ate whatever I could find, but now that I've reunited with Yuria, I think it was a good thing that I had a necessary life experience early on.

If it hadn't ended at this level, I, as a person, would surely have realized it belatedly through someone's 'death'.

Friends. Leadership. Dreams. The experience of being able to look back on everything was a good experience for me. Of course, I hate that bastard Hans to death.

"...It's been a while."

"..."

"It hasn't been that long, we saw each other yesterday..."

What would have happened if I had recognized Yuria, who was under a spell?

Would we have become friends like before?

Or would we have become closer than friends?

In the first place, if I hadn't said bad things to Yuria, she might have stayed by my side even after I lost my talent. The warm smile she gave was not for status or success.

If we had just been in the middle, we wouldn't have had to be awkward seeing each other's faces, but 'I' ruined everything.

He deserved it.

The me back then.

And the me now.

To Yuria, the person named Luin would only remain as a past she wanted to forget and a piece of trash.

So.

"Hoo."

I had to be hated.

"..."

Although I still like Yuria.

"..."

Although I like her a lot.

"Yeah... it's been a while, Luin."

Because it was too late to forget the unrequited love of my arrogant days when I didn't know the feeling of love.

"I'm not going to go easy on you."

I had to start over slowly.

"I'll finish this quickly."

That's the only way we can remain as friends.

-..Why are you like that.

-Go away.

-You don't have any friends either?

-Grip...

-I said get lost.

-Hehe... same as me.

-What did you say.

-You know... want to be my friend?

-...What?

-I'm a very bright person. I smile a lot and I'm kind. Of course, I'm not fun... but it's still good to have me as a friend.

-Grip...

-...Ha.

-Hehe.

-That's funny.

'Damn it.'

With a decision in his heart, a green-colored magic began to flow from Luin's hand. At the same time, Yuria's divine eye also began to shine.

The eye of essence that sees through everything.

As Yuria's eyes, which grasped the weaknesses of living creatures and the flow of mana, turned to Luin, Luin clenched his fists and then began to cast a low magic with a trembling hand.

"Here I come, Yuria."

Luin knew.

"Seed Shot"

That the winner of this battle would be him. Just as a puppy cannot transcend the limits of its species and become a bird, Luin, who clearly knew the limits of a healer, clenched his fists and fired a magic that shot out sharp seeds, but.

"[Divine Domain Liberation.]"

There was something Luin had overlooked.

"Repel all magic."

[Repulsion]

The fact that the protagonist of this novel was Yuria.

In Luin's memory, Yuria was a healer who hid in the back, but Luin didn't know that she was a monster who had reached the round of 16 in the ranking battles through countless efforts and outstanding talent.

The reason why Malik had given Yuria the qualification of 'king' was also for strategic reasons, but he had also believed in Yuria's individual strength.

"Luin."

Luin didn't know that the distance between him and Yuria had narrowed.

"Tense your stomach."

*

"Ughghgh!!!"

At the time when the battle between Luin and Yuria was continuing.

"Ughghgh!!!"

Schuen was holding onto Mikhail's leg.

"You can't go anywhere. Commoner!"

"Schuen..!"

"I, Schuen, am heavier than I look, you know?!"

"..."

"Hnggggh!!!"

Schuen, who had judged that a battle was impossible, held onto Mikhail's leg with his remaining mana.

"Tetra family secret technique!"

"..."

"Becoming heavy!"

"Haa..."

"If you tense your stomach, you get heavier, you know!"

Mikhail, who was looking down at Schuen, let out a deep sigh and made a troubled expression. No matter how much of a competition it was, he couldn't just kick her roughly.

"Huhu... how is it. Commoner."

"..."

"I won, didn't I?"

Mikhail let out a short sigh, lowered his head, and then slowly began to raise his sword.

"Don't move, Schuen."

"Hiiiiik!?!"

"I'll take it off without hurting you."

Schuen, who saw the sharp tip of the sword, raised his trembling eyes and looked at Mikhail, but Mikhail's sword only came closer without any intention of stopping.

"I'll never let go!"

"...Okay."

"But don't kill me!"

"I won't kill you..."

"Don't fight with a sword like a coward..."

As Schuen's honest voice rang out loudly, Mikhail let out a low sigh, placed his sword on the ground, and began to channel his aura into it.

"Hk!"

Because he had learned how to handle aura in his lessons with Ricardo.

"Hiiiiii!!!"

Mikhail was also able to learn how to apply that ability on his own.

As Schuen, who had gritted his teeth at the wind pressure that flew with the aura, was thrown from Mikhail's leg, Schuen ran over again and tried to hug Mikhail's leg.

"I'll show you properly this time! Tetra secret technique...!"

"This time, it's really going to hurt."

"...But I can't move!"

The moment Mikhail took a stance as he saw the approaching Schuen.

"Schuen, stop."

At the voice of the reinforcements coming from behind, Schuen's face lit up as he shouted.

"Have you finally come?! My buff..."

"Rest, Schuen."

"Eh."

Schuen was dejected because it wasn't the buff he had been waiting for.

Chartia, who had joined the battlefield, walked in front of Mikhail and gave a calm smile.

"How much strength do you have left?"

Mikhail held his sword and said.

"I have plenty."

"You do?"

Chartia smiled slightly and began to gather mana at her fingertips.

"Indulge my complaints a little. Then."

"..."

"Because I don't know what to say."

Chartia's mana began to move slowly.

-Saaaaa...

Along with the potential she possessed.

Mikhail, holding his sword, became wary of Chartia and began to pour his aura into his sword.

"It seems like this is the first time I'm fighting with the student council president."

At Mikhail's words, Chartia shook her head and said.

"You're going to win anyway, so please go easy on me."

"For someone who says that...."

The moment Chartia's hand moved quickly, Mikhail rolled on the ground and swung his sword.

"You seem to be serious."

Chartia's eyes were shining slightly.

3 hours left until the end of the siege.

Hanna and Malik, clashing swords on the high spire, looked at each other with small smiles on their lips.

"Ha?"

"Haha..."

The two were marveling at each other's noticeably improved skills.

'What... I thought he had been resting all this time...'

Malik's swordsmanship, which he thought had stalled, had improved noticeably.

'Ricardo, you son of a bitch... what did you do?'

Malik was also astounded by Hanna's improved skills.

"You've become a monster."

Malik, who uttered a short comment towards Hanna, swung his sword with all his strength.

"You've improved a bit too, brother."

"Ha?"

"You've improved a lot since you were at the mansion."

"To think I'd hear that from you. Time is truly a frightening thing...!"

The coldly forged blades moved to find each other's weak points and seize victory.

"I'm going to speed up a bit."

Hanna's sword cut through the wind and drew a horizontal line to slash Malik's thigh.

It was a clean horizontal cut.

A perfect horizontal cut with no unnecessary movements.

Malik, looking at Hanna's sword, bit his lip and thought. That he couldn't dodge that technique.

'I can't dodge it.'

Monstrous speed.

Malik, astounded by Hanna's unconventional attack of giving her body a rotation in an instant to draw a horizontal cut, gripped his sword even stronger and closed the distance.

Because he thought that it was more advantageous to give up a little flesh and counterattack rather than dodging ambiguously.

Malik raised his concentration to the maximum and moved his sword towards Hanna's sleeve.

'I can't just take it lying down.'

Because he, like Ricardo, thought that a spear that pierces everything was the best, rather than a shield that is never pierced.

-Clang!!!

He had no desire to lose to his sister meekly.

"Hoo..."

And because he was her older brother, he wanted to win even more.

-Slash.

-Slash.

The two, who had swung their swords at the same time, looked at each other with awkward smiles.

"..."

"...Damn it."

Malik, whose thigh was slashed by Hanna's sword, clicked his tongue as he looked at the small cut on his sleeve.

"It was shallow."

"...I didn't think you'd counterattack."

"I may look like this, but I'm a person who has devoted my life to the sword."

"..."

"It's called experience."

Hanna, with a 'smirk,' looked at Malik's wound and uttered a small taunt. Because she was also enjoying this battle.

"Tell me if it's tough. I'll go easy on you."

"No way. I'm still at ease."

"Really?"

"Be nervous."

Malik began to run towards Hanna in a single breath.

'I've grasped Hanna's habits to some extent.'

First, her hand.

Malik moved his legs as he looked at Hanna's empty hand. From what he had seen of Hanna so far, when a strong attack was coming, she would place her hand that wasn't holding the sword on her wrist to make up for her lack of strength.

If he twisted his ankle and showed a false path to the right.

"...!"

An opening would inevitably appear.

Malik's sword, which had finished its analysis in an instant, met Hanna's sword and spread a huge sound.

-Clang clang.

One step.

-Clang clang clang.

Two steps.

Malik, who had closed the distance, began to push forward like a ferocious lion to break the staggering Hanna's balance with all his might.

Hanna's strength was speed.

Malik's strength was power.

-You two.

-...

-Are you siblings?

-Yes.

-That's right.

-...You two have completely different directions. In Hanna's case, her speed is overwhelmingly fast, but her power is weak. And you, boss, are overflowing with power even though you're not fighting a monster.

-I'm glad we're not alike.

-Me too.

-As expected of siblings...

Power and speed.

It's impossible to decide which is better.

Because both were essential elements of the sword.

-What do you two think is the most important weapon a swordsman must have?

Though their answers were different.

-Power.

-Speed.

They were geniuses who knew their strengths better than anyone and had honed them.

Even though Malik was biased towards business, he was born with the blood of Histania, who loved the sword.

"Hraaaaaah!!!"

And even though Hanna had not received Histania's teachings, she had a natural talent, so a flower was bound to bloom.

"..."

Hanna, who was struggling to receive Malik's sword, opened her eyes coldly and muttered in a low voice.

"Flower... bloom."

A secret technique she had mastered on her own in this class.

"...!"

With the calm and settled atmosphere, a faint aura began to accumulate on Hanna's sword like petals.

A flower with a white light.

Though it had a more beautiful shape on the outside than any other flower, it was shining alluringly like a flower with a fatal poison.

Malik gritted his teeth and gripped his sword.

"Histania..."

Because he couldn't lose either.

An old memory comes to mind.

-First brother... can't you just spar with me once...?

The time when he wouldn't extend a hand to his sister, who was alone because she was afraid of their father.

-...

-Just once, please. Just once..

-I'm busy.

A coward who couldn't extend a hand to his young sister because he was afraid of his father.

-Can I ask you when you're not busy?

-...

-I'm... I'm sorry for taking your time.

He was proud of Hanna, who had overcome such a coward and bloomed a wonderful flower, but the memory of leaving an indelible bruise in his sister's heart was not erased.

-Squeeze.

An indelible mistake.

A mistake once committed becomes a shackle that is stuck in someone's memory and cannot leave.

The first time he apologized to Hanna, he could still not forget the sight of his sister crying her eyes out like a child.

-Why...! Why are you apologizing now!

-...I'm sorry.

-You hated me to death! You treated me like I didn't exist, why did you do that! What's going to change if you apologize now...

-I'm really... sorry.

-I wanted to die... to the point where I wished you would just tell me to die... but... but..! Why are you acting like a brother now?

-...I want to start now.

Breaking those shackles.

And taking on that pain.

Because he couldn't do either, Malik put his heart into his sword and told the story of a cowardly coward.

Not Histania's.

"Histania 1st form."

But a brother's sword.

At Malik's hugely resounding sword, Hanna calmly let out a breath and lowly spoke the story of her sword.

"Full Bloom."

The petals gathered on Hanna's sword began to scatter, spreading a brilliant sword dance.

Malik, looking at the petals falling as if tantalized by the sunlight of the rising sun that coincided with the dawn sky, bit his lip.

'It's been broken through.'

Because Histania's swordsmanship had been broken through.

Malik, feeling the aura in his hand scattering like petals, greatly rotated his body and dug into Hanna's embrace.

Because the scattering petals couldn't be dodged.

"Hoo..."

He had to close the distance and hide under the shade of the tree where the petals were falling.

-Swoosh.

Hanna's sword, which was moving, scraping the floor, began to move quickly once again without any consideration for Malik's feelings.

"A long time ago, you said to me, brother."

"..."

"That I have no talent."

"..."

"Don't you think it's different now, brother?"

Hanna's eyes were looking at a higher place. She was looking at a higher peak than the one she had looked at in her childhood, with eyes full of conviction.

'That bastard...'

He hated Ricardo.

'I'm envious.'

Because it seemed like he was receiving more trust than him, who was his blood relative.

Hanna moved her sword with a cheerful smile, as if she was not living in the past.

"Thank you, brother."

"..."

"For apologizing first."

Malik smiled brightly as he looked at the approaching sword.

"...No."

With eyes full of complex emotions.

Because an apology is something that is never enough, no matter how many times you do it.

Even if you do it a hundred times.

Even if that person says it's okay.

Because you know that the bruise in your heart can never be undone...

Therefore.

"..."

He had no intention of losing today.

"I am your older brother."

Because he had not yet kept his promise to Hanna.

-From now on, I want to be a proper older brother.

-...What?

-Even if you hate me. Even if you dislike me.

-...

-Because I am your worthless older brother.

He couldn't be taken away before he even started to be a proper older brother. Because before he was Malik, he was an older brother. Because he was a despicable coward and a trashy older brother who had left an indelible bruise in his sister's heart.

So.

"I can't lose."

He couldn't lose.

Malik's sword tip moved, reflecting the sun that was being revealed by the dawn.

To become a shade for his sister to lean on, he swung his sword with all his might so as not to fall.

"Because I am your older brother."

"..."

"I can't lose yet."

There is no world where no one gets hurt, but in that world, Malik, who wanted to be a selfish older brother, smiled faintly and swung the sword from his hand.

Happier than ever before.

.

.

.

"Haha..."

"Don't laugh..."

The Histania siblings, looking at the ceiling of the spire with a hole in it, let out a hollow laugh as they looked at the rising sun.

"I won."

Malik said to Hanna with a gentle smile.

"I can be a big brother a little longer."

Malik, who couldn't lose yet.

Of course.

"Wow~ Boss."

Except for that guy.

"You were amazing."

*

Crash...!

With a huge roar, a circular cloud of shock began to spread at Luin's feet.

"Keok...!"

Luin's body, from which impurities had spurted out of his mouth, trembled greatly. It was a difficult attack for a magician's body to withstand.

"Luin."

"...!!"

"Breathe."

Yuria, who had uttered a cold word, bent her waist and began to prepare for the next attack.

In a fleeting moment of less than a second, divine power began to gather in her fist and shine.

"Kugh...!!"

The moment he saw Yuria's approaching fist, Luin quickly recited a magic formula and blocked Yuria's fist with both hands.

-Crash...!

Of course.

"Keok...!"

It was impossible to block all the shock.

Luin, whose legs gave out, lifted his trembling eyes and looked at Yuria.

"Why."

He was asking why she was beating him so excitedly.