Chapter 81

Chapter 81

Open Class (4)

The final order of the first day of open class.

At the center of the Colosseum stood a massive wyvern.

Edward had brought out the wyvern in advance and was raising the audience’s expectations to the fullest.

Then Edward, standing before the wyvern, opened his mouth.

Soon, through the necklace imbued with amplification magic, his voice rang out loudly.

“We have already reached the final order. The student who will decorate the finale of open class’s first day, the student who will defeat this hideous wyvern... who could it possibly be?!”

Following Edward’s intriguing hosting, the Adventurer Guild association head in the VIP seats muttered.

“I was wondering whether he would not appear... but in the end, he comes out last. Headmaster Juliut, is this intentional staging?”

“I do not know the details either, haha.”

Juliut was merely guessing that this was the doing of his son, Edward.

“Who will come out?”

“I think it might be a third-year student. That wyvern looks far larger than the one Student Eisel defeated.”

“...Among the students we watched last year, was there anyone better than Student Eisel?”

Those in the VIP seats were guessing who the final student would be, but the academy officials had a vague idea which student would appear.

“He” had not come out yet.

Sword Saint Chris, who could be said to know of his existence, and Zeras Clementine were both thinking of him.

As Edward took his time, the Colosseum began murmuring.

Soon, after leaving a little more pause, Edward opened his mouth.

“...Since this is the last, I shall proceed quickly without flourishes. Then please welcome him with applause. Student Zeto of first-year Class A.”

Edward’s voice rang low.

“Kyaaaaaaah—!!!”

“Zeto—!!”

“It’s Zeto!!!”

Although he had not yet even shown himself in the Colosseum, students, especially female students, screamed and shouted his name.

Zeto could already be considered a celebrity within the academy.

Outsiders who did not know this reacted with confusion, wondering, “Who is Zeto?”

At last, he slowly walked into the Colosseum and revealed himself.

Immediately, applause poured out.

The outsiders, who had clapped for the moment, confirmed his appearance, and their confusion instantly turned to bewilderment.

Because snow-white bandages were wrapped around Zeto’s eyes.

“What is with those bandages?”

“His eyes must be impaired.”

“And he is going to defeat a wyvern?”

The outsiders stopped clapping and began murmuring, asking those around them to resolve their questions.

On one side, applause, and on the other, murmurs dyed with confusion filled the Colosseum.

In the VIP seats, Zeras was opening his mouth.

“I heard he was strong, but to think he would face a wyvern.”

Zeras shrugged and said that to Maxim beside him.

“...”

Maxim gave no particular answer and was intently observing Zeto.

The vice-captain of the Silver Wings Knights had her eyes wide.

“A blind Acupuncturist with bandages over his eyes... The Saintess did say there was a possibility he might be a swordsman... But surely he could not be an academy student?”

The vice-captain was recalling what Saintess Bernice had said.

The Saintess had not attended this open class and had instead gone in search of the “blind Acupuncturist.”

The fact that he was a student felt strange, but there were almost no people who would possess those traits all at once. She thought she would need to contact the Saintess as soon as this battle ended.

“The blind swordsman... Zeto...”

Chris had finally come face to face with the “blind swordsman” Kaen had told him about in her letter.

There was one question.

...As he approached the center of the Colosseum, the killing intent felt in the air was growing closer.

“Hmm...”

Chris let out a low hum and scratched his head.

Was the owner of that killing intent this blind swordsman, this student named Zeto?

If he was giving off killing intent, then it should mean he held a grudge, but no matter how Chris searched his memories, he had never encountered a blind man named Zeto.

Just then, the Adventurer Guild association head asked Juliut a question.

His question was extremely simple, yet perhaps the most important part.

“Headmaster Juliut, how is that student named Zeto walking around so well...?”

At the association head’s question, Juliut turned his head over his shoulder to look at him and touched his chin.

“From what I have heard from the instructors... he possesses a special ability called ‘perception.’ Thanks to that, he apparently has no major issues in daily life or combat.”

“Oho...”

Thanks to the association head, those who learned Zeto’s information nodded.

Meanwhile, Zeto, who was the center of their conversation, thought as he walked to the center of the Colosseum.

“What nonsense is this, saying that because I am last, the only monster left is one wyvern...”

Being the final order, and having to catch a wyvern on top of that, felt a little burdensome because far too many gazes were focused on him.

Meanwhile, Edward, who had staged this situation, looked at Zeto approaching him and smiled brightly as if nothing had happened.

The audience was not worried for Zeto.

Since they had already seen Eisel, a first-year student just like him, defeat a wyvern with their own eyes, they naturally thought Zeto would catch the wyvern too.

Rather, they were expecting what sort of showing he would give.

Then Edward discreetly checked the protective magic that should be cast on Zeto.

“Shall we begin?”

At Edward’s question, Zeto nodded once, and Edward immediately snapped his fingers.

—Kieeeeeeeeeek!!!!

Immediately, the wyvern’s ear-tearing cry rang through the Colosseum as it was released from illusion magic.

Zeto placed a hand on the cursed blade at his waist.

As Zeto moved his head slightly, Sierra entered his sight.

Sierra wore a solemn expression.

Zeto was not sure whether she was looking at him or at the Sword Saint, who should be sitting in the VIP seats.

Soon, among all the people in the Colosseum, Sierra’s voice, which only Zeto could hear, rang in his head.

[ Go and show him. Show him what swordsmanship will defy and defeat him... what Rebellion Against Heaven is. ]

Then Zeto drew “Sierra” with a faint smile.

—Shing.

While most watching Zeto were thinking of the words “reverse grip,” he was wondering whether he should use Chapter One or Chapter Two.

—Kieeeeek!!!

While he was thinking this, the wyvern chose not to charge at Zeto, but to use its wings and fly into the air.

Since the Colosseum was surrounded by Reina’s barrier, it could not escape.

However, the wyvern was not trying to flee.

This was a wyvern’s habit of rising into the air and then rapidly diving to attack the enemy.

Zeto was sweeping his fingers along the blade while watching the wyvern flap its wings and move farther and farther away from him.

“Rebellion Against Heaven, Chapter One.”

As Zeto inwardly repeated those words,

the flow of mana circulating inside his body twisted.

Because there was quite a distance between him and the audience seats, most people did not notice this. But those in the VIP seats were all powerful, and none of them missed it.

“I did not see that wrong, did I...?”

Sicily Windless’s trembling voice rang low in the VIP seats.

Even though she asked that, no one answered.

Because their common sense could not understand Zeto, who stood perfectly fine even after twisting the flow of mana.

“Was sweeping down the blade an action to draw out the concentration needed to twist the mana flow...?”

Chris raised one eyebrow at Zeto’s action, which he found rather interesting.

“What will you show me?”

Zeto was lifting his head toward the wyvern floating in the air.

In his sight, a red circle was visible at the wyvern’s wing joint.

“Weaknesses” were visible on the creature’s neck too, but he thought simply cutting off its neck as things were would be a little too bland.

Then the sword Zeto held in reverse grip thrust out swiftly.

His action once again filled everyone in the Colosseum watching him with doubt.

Because although he had swung his sword into empty air, not even a single sword aura could be seen.

Naturally, the first one who could realize Zeto’s intention was Sword Saint Chris.

“He cut it.”

He could feel it instinctively.

But the question of “how” remained.

Even for him, the Sword Saint, it was swordsmanship he was seeing for the first time in his life.

—Craaaack!!

Immediately, the wing of the wyvern that had flown into the air split with a strange sound, and then the wyvern, having lost one wing, naturally began falling to the ground.

“It was not sword aura, yet he cut an enemy far away....And unlike sword aura, it seems to be a direct attack. Interesting.”

In that instant, the sword of Zeto, whom Chris glanced at, had wyvern blood on it.

Soon, Zeto lowered his head and slowly walked forward.

He was approaching the point where the wyvern would fall.

Zeto, who had been walking leisurely, stopped his feet and once again swept his fingers down the blade.

—Kieeeeeeeek!!!!!

Above where he stood, the wyvern was falling with a scream.

“At this rate, he will be crushed...?”

The vice-captain of the Silver Wings Knights was confused, wondering whether he had failed to notice this because he was blind.

She did not know how he had cut off the wyvern’s wing in the first place either.

It was just before the wyvern’s body crushed Zeto.

Whether he knew it or not, Zeto calmly swept down the blade until, at last, he gathered mana into both legs and suddenly twisted his body, adding rotation as he leapt high.

“Dangerous...!”

Because the vice-captain was too engrossed, she forgot the existence of the protective magic and stood up from the VIP seats, shouting those words.

The student named Zeto might be the one the Saintess was looking for. It would be troublesome if he was injured.

Zeto, who had risen into the air, had just finished sweeping down the blade.

Then.

The Colosseum.

Zeto’s world froze.

His body, which had surged up through his leap, was spinning at tremendous speed because he had twisted himself like a cartwheel.

Soon, his sword, held in reverse grip, touched the head of the wyvern slowly falling toward him.

Zeto’s “rotating strike,” carried out in midair, was splitting the wyvern in half.

The wyvern’s flesh split apart and blood sprayed, but this too was slow, so not a single drop of blood splattered onto Zeto’s body.

At last, Zeto had split the wyvern’s entire body.

As he had calculated, it was something that ended in only ten seconds.

After briefly looking down, Zeto glanced at the Sword Saint, who should be sitting in the VIP seats.

The Sword Saint visible below was raising his head and following him with his eyes despite the flow of time having slowed.

“...This is your speed, is it?”

Zeto felt a chill, if only slightly.

***

“Dangerous...!”

The vice-captain of the Silver Wings Knights shouted that.

Zeto had suddenly leapt upward from the point where the wyvern was falling.

Those in the VIP seats thought it would likely not be dangerous, but they too had questions all the same.

It was not even a matter of seconds.

Something strange happened in an instant.

Zeto’s form, which had leapt in a somewhat ordinary way, suddenly disappeared from sight.

—Splaaash!!!!!!!!!

First, a tremendous roar came, as if something had “burst apart.”

“Uh...?”

A short sound left the vice-captain’s mouth, and she could not close it.

When she blinked, the wyvern falling toward Zeto had split in half.

—Thoooom!!!!!!!

Soon, the two pieces of the wyvern’s corpse fell to the Colosseum floor with a dull sound, and dust rose.

—Shwaaaaa...

Then red liquid that seemed to be the wyvern’s blood poured down from the sky.

Fortunately, because the barrier was in place, the blood did not splash onto the audience.

However, Zeto was nowhere to be seen.

“...”

The vice-captain quickly moved her eyes, trying to find Zeto.

Chris, who had turned his head back to glance at her, opened his mouth.

“...He is over there.”

As he said that, Chris uncrossed his arms, and his finger pointed toward the sky.

Following Chris’s finger, the vice-captain was immediately able to find Zeto.

For some reason, he was only now falling from the air.

—Thud.

Before long, Zeto’s feet touched the ground.

—Clack.

Then he swung the sword he held, scattering blood onto the ground, and immediately sheathed it, causing a clear and pure sound to ring softly through the Colosseum.

After that, there was a very brief silence.

—Waaaaaaaaah!!!!!!!!

Belatedly understanding the situation, the audience, students and outsiders alike, unleashed fierce cheers.

Thunderous applause and cheers shook the Colosseum.

“...”

Zeto smoothly turned his back and walked toward the outside of the Colosseum.

“Blood falling like rain? No thanks.”

Zeto was simply moving his feet as quickly as possible because he did not want to be hit by the falling wyvern blood...

...but the audience watching him became captivated once again by his relaxed figure.

Those in the VIP seats watching Zeto were each thinking something different.

“Dangerous, what was I saying... Dangerous...”

The vice-captain’s face was heating because she felt rather embarrassed by the words that had slipped from her mouth without her realizing it.

“...”

Zeras stroked his beard without a word and seriously wondered whether it might be acceptable to take him as his son-in-law.

Sword Saint Chris finally sprang up from his seat.

Then he shouted heartily toward Juliut, who had been touching his chin.

“Juliut, arrange a meeting with that student named Zeto!”

Killing intent or whatever else, Chris wanted to speak with him immediately.