A Death Row Convict Teaches at a School of Magic

“That marks four wins consecutively for both Eto and Fina today then!”

During the after-school practice session, the report from Eto filled Arti with delight.

On the other hand, a touch of consternation flashed across Eto’s complexion.

“Yeah… but my victory is unjustified or rather… because I was using my father’s power…”

What Eto probably referred to was the surge in her physical prowess that ensued resulting from her resurrection. Indeed, with the exception of her head, which was intact, practically all of her body tissues were originally constituted from Matthias’ own physique. On top of that, the tissues that generated magical power in various parts of the body were centralized in Eto’s head, leaving her with barely any loss of magical power, and therefore she has become genuinely empowered compared to before she was born. The only field in which she was lacking in experience was in actual combat, though without a doubt, her performance in the selection rounds would earn her a place among the leading contenders.

Yet, it would seem that she perceived this as a form of cheating―a sense of foul play. It was only appropriate given her conscientious nature.

At this moment, Arti continued the discourse with her trademark optimism, as was to be anticipated. A kick drew a dazzling trajectory in front of my eyes right as I was ready to pay heed to their words.

“Since a while ago, you’ve been taking staring unnecessarily at other people and being so leisure.”

“…I am truly sorry.”

“Your apology has come far too late.”

I offered an apology in all earnestness, which apparently didn’t dissuade Fina from losing her cool.

Well, it was true that anyone possessing confidence in their skills would lose their nerve if the other party continuously directed their attention to the outfield in the course of a mock battle.

The ferocity of Fina’s assault turned even more aggressive. To begin with, her technique was so solid that most magicians would have been KO’d in a heartbeat. I initially stated to her that she would face no difficulties in the student knight competition, to which she shrugged it off, claiming, “The student knight competition is merely a checkpoint for me.”

Ultimately, I relented and allowed her to participate in the practice sessions like this.

“Hah!”

“Wait!”

A high kick from Fina grazed the top of my head as I bent down, followed by the sound of the wind in my ears. A significant degree of bloodlust was present in the kick. Had I received this blow squarely, I might have lost my stock.

“Tsk!”

“Did you just click your tongue!?”

Against Fina, who was now standing on one leg, I launched the standard foot strike, which Fina evaded by leaping with her single leg stance. Carrying the wave of energy with her, she unleashed a heel strike. My immediate response was to swiftly engage my arms and defend with an X-Fist block, yet when the terrific blow struck—unbelievably hard for a girl—it left me paralyzed.

Fina did not let that split-second opening elude her.

“I got it.”

“You didn’t.”

“!?”

Fina was on the brink of executing the decisive blow as expected, yet faster than that, I gripped her legs with both hands and yanked her to me in one swift action.

Having lost her stance, Fina sought to maneuver evasively again, but this time escape was out of the question. Forming her hands into a defensive posture with her arms in a cross-block gesture in front of her chest, I aimed at her face, or more accurately, at her forehead.

Clank.

“Ouch!”

Fina fainted in agony after being headbutted by me.

It was of course originally intended to impact the nose or mouth, so even a forehead, which fell into the tougher section of the human body, would have sustained a fair amount of damage. Even I had to adjust the angle of the blow to mitigate the damage.

“We are done now Being able to dodge the foot sweep kick was reasonably mind-blowing. But your moves are still too conventional.”

Fina requested me to teach her martial arts, but in all fairness, she had attained such a degree of proficiency in imperial court-style self-defense that there wasn’t much I could guide her. Naturally, there would still be room for further refinement should I earnestly teach her, but at that time, the style would be far detached from the original art of self-defense of the imperial court, and in that case, her focus would inevitably drift to me, who had introduced a new martial art to her.

The question then became, how much could I improve Fina’s ability while preserving her current form to the utmost?

“Uwah, that was quite a sound. Fina, are you okay?”

“The stars… stars are spinning…”

“Oh, her eyes are spinning. Teacher Kanaki, you are unexpectedly a sadist.”

Arti shot me a stern stare, which I did not deny. For if I catch a glimpse of the girl sleeping in the infirmary now, I certainly doubted that anyone could be as sadistic in this world as I was.

Well, in that sense, Alice was roughly in the same boat as me.

“Even though it’s a little early, let’s call it a day since Fina has passed ou. I will take care of Fina’s treatment.”

“Ehー! Teacher, you promised to teach me how to wield Chakrameth today!”

To Arti, who instantly showed reluctance, I made an apologetic face.

“Well, excuse me. I swear I will compensate you. Please give me a break for today; I will make up for this without a doubt.”

“What do you mean, you have a date?”

“A date!?”

“You are wrong. It’s a minor thing involving the transfer students. I mean, Arti, please cease your usual tendency to bring up the subject of my personal relationships.”

“Tsk, how dull.”

Frustration was peppering Arti’s lips, but a somewhat happy-looking Eto managed to pacify her and dragged her to the changing room. Perhaps due to having Eto reside at Arti’s house, they seemed to be sisters already these days. Needless to say, the younger sister was Arti.

Even as these thoughts raced through my mind, my hands moved swiftly to administer medical treatment to Fina. She appeared to have suffered a mild concussion and was still unable to stand, but I paid no attention to her mumbling, “Next time, I will definitely…” or something along those lines. To uplift her goodwill toward me, I will have to determine at a later time what to perform in the next practice session. If I were to wish for more, I would prefer if Fina could leverage what I have taught her here and achieve victory in the selection round, but given that I will only be teaching her martial arts, that will prove a challenge. Nothing alarming can be detected in this respect, though, and I can infer that things have been moving along smoothly because the distance between Fina and me has been steadily narrowing.

The dilemma was the other two. As for one of them, Olga Schmel, the net has already been set and all that awaited now was for the prey to take a bite. This inevitably raised the question of what I need to do now.

To that end, there was one place I needed to visit first after this.

Once Fina’s treatment was over, I left the rest to Eto, and headed back home at a brisk pace, with my back scorching from the sun’s escalating heat.