The Academy’s Ankle Reaper

The door to the private bar for the Five Pillars burst open violently.

Edgar Lemnos, who had lost in yesterday’s duel, staggered in.

He had just gotten out of bed, with bandages wrapped tightly around his body.

“What is this, Knight?”

Lemnos was clutching a newspaper in his hand.

It was an article about the duel that had spread throughout the academy this morning.

The result of his defeat might be deemed invalid… in a way, it was a good thing, but he didn’t look very pleased.

“Edgar! Are you okay?!”

“Zeek, get out of the way! Who wrote this crap…!! Was it Perda?! Or was it you, Prigia?!”

Lemnos’ closest friend, Zeek Albion, stepped forward first, but Lemnos shoved him aside.

Albion stumbled backward, but Lemnos didn’t even look back.

His eyes were filled with rage, blocking out everything else.

“Calm down, Edgar. You’re too worked up.”

Though it seemed his leg had healed, there was still some aftereffects as Lemnos staggered.

Seeing this, Perda stood up from the sofa with a grin to support him, but Lemnos pointed the newspaper at Perda.

“Don’t come any closer.”

Simply raising the paper, he exuded a killing intent as if he were aiming a real sword.

It was hard to believe he was the same person who had been defeated so ruthlessly yesterday.

Perda didn’t seem scared but complied with his words.

“Scary~ relax, it’s not like I’m the one who did it.”

“!!!”

At Perda’s words, Lemnos’s killing intent fixed onto him.

One person was still lounging on the sofa,

Shaara Prigia leaned back, lazily observing Lemnos’s reactions.

“… Must be nice to be so carefree, Lemnos.”

“You…!!”

As Lemnos’s gaze locked onto her, Prigia spoke first.

“Yeah, I did it. The moment your defeat was confirmed, I took action… Is that something to get angry about? You should be grateful that I took the initiative to wipe your disgrace clean.”

“That duel was mine. Whether I win or lose, it’s my affair. Who are you to meddle in the results of my duel?”

Before the Five Pillars, Edgar Lemnos was just an investigator.

To him, duels hold significant meaning.

The weight of a duel as a means to resolve personal disputes is a burden solely carried by the two participants.

Be it victory or defeat.

Yet, Prigia casually mocked that duel as if it were no big deal, merely interfering with a flick of her finger.

To imply that she would use Atlas for cheating was an insult even to him, who had lost.

“Did you think Lemnos’s name was so easy to brush aside, you girl?”

“That’s what I’m trying to say. Do you think the Five Pillars look so weak?”

“It’s not the Five Pillars… this is my duel!”

“As long as you bear the name Lemnos, it’s not just your duel. It’s a duel for all of us in the Five Pillars.”

Prigia shot back at Lemnos.

To her, the Five Pillars represented a community.

Even if individuals didn’t see it that way, from a third-party view, the five families would collectively be referred to as the Five Pillars; thus, if one made a fool of themselves, the other four were affected as well.

“You didn’t lose just yourself. The sword of the Five Pillars was broken. The image we barely managed to maintain is about to crash. Are you satisfied now?”

Differing from the other four families that relied on profits from their territories and valued skills like swordsmanship and magic, Prigia was a colossal consortium.

The brand “Five Pillars” was Prigia’s most significant showcase, and if the family renowned as the strongest sword were to lose to an unnamed new student, how would their image suffer?

From the very beginning, Prigia had had no fondness for that duel.

“This…!!”

Edgar grabbed Prigia by the collar.

The massive Lemnos hoisted Prigia, who was no smaller than Lucia, off the ground, leaving her dangling.

With his breath caught, Prigia grimaced, her delicate hands clutching Lemnos’s thick wrist like it was a battering ram.

Unlike the other Five Pillars, Prigia didn’t fight physically.

Thus, Prigia only had the physical abilities of a regular person.

If Lemnos, who had become a Sword Expert and reached a superhuman level, merely exerted himself, Prigia’s delicate neck would snap like a twig.

“… Go on, hit me.”

Still, Prigia stood her ground.

Even in a situation where she could die at any moment, she managed to steady her breath and said,

“Here, here. If hitting me will ease your anger, go ahead.”

She even provoked Lemnos, offering her cheek as if daring him to strike.

Veins bulged on Lemnos’s forehead.

His hand rose to shoulder height before trembling and falling back down.

It wasn’t the fear of cleaning up the aftermath.

In such a charged state, he was worried about accidentally snapping the slender neck of a regular person like her.

Seeing his hand drop, Prigia taunted him.

“Can’t do it? Then fix your habit of raising your hand unless you have something to say.”

Throughout, she maintained a consistently expressionless and rigid tone, yet Lemnos felt her last words struck differently.

It felt as if Prigia was mocking him.

Lemnos’s fiery temper flared up once more.

“This is..!!”

“Edgar, don’t!! You’ll actually kill her!!”

As Lemnos’s hand rose again, ready to strike,

“Come over here.”

The door to the private bar swung open.

Lemnos’s hand froze.

“Who…?”

Walking through the door was Atlas.

Upon seeing Lemnos grasping Prigia by the collar, he grinned broadly and said in a genial manner,

“What, were you fighting? Don’t mind me, keep going.”