I Was the Strongest Sword God in My Past Life

part 73

Leon, the current first-year ranking number one, had lost to Jien.

‘Ah, after this test, I won’t be number one either.’

Rita glanced at Leon.

Leon was lost in thought, gazing at the distant Jien.

‘Jien Russell’s mana is below mine… yet how did she show such a battle?’

The moment Leon faced Jien with his sword.

Leon felt a chill run down his spine. Jien’s swordsmanship was efficient, wasting no movement.

‘Perfect swordsmanship…’

Yes, it was. It was the kind of swordsmanship that anyone would covet. Leon felt a sense of admiration for Jien’s training.

‘There’s something that can’t be expressed in words.’

Jien had something that differentiated her from other students. Leon didn’t notice, but it was a sense of intuition and judgment that could only be gained from actual combat experience.

Jien’s past life was a hero who had reached the 8th Gate. She had a wealth of experience ignoring physical specifications.

‘The battle, strategy, everything was a defeat.’

Leon gazed at his own aura with a sad face.

‘I was just too arrogant.’

Leon threw away the nameplate with the ranking “1” on it. A new goal had been born.

* * *

Isabel’s evaluation at school was originally strong. However, after she showcased her useless mana in the competition, her evaluation has risen to the next level.

“Are you just leaving the king behind and going all-in?”

Isabel, leaning on her throne, smiled sweetly as she looked at her 9 opponents. The trembling king was a specialty of buff. Isabel’s ability was to support the king.

“Yes. As you can see, we’re faster. Can you protect the king against 9 opponents by yourself?”

As she spoke, Isabelle’s hand flashed with flames, and her gauntlets took shape.

“What are you guarding? Is it hard?”

Isabelle created a massive curtain of fire between herself and her opponent.

“I can’t control my power.”

Explosive mana erupted from her body.

Isabelle’s words were not empty boasts. In the original number competition where only the strongest students gathered, her unique characteristic was “Star’s Child.”

That was a characteristic given to the student with the highest mana rating among all participants. The difference in numbers meant little to Isabelle, who possessed a range of firepower.

A mocking smile played on her lips.

Isabelle provocatively wagged her hand at her opponent.

“Hey, isn’t it getting urgent? Come on, let’s get started.”

* * *

Creeping sound.

Chris infiltrated the castle, avoiding the vigilant guards of the enemy team. This was an impossible feat for other students, but Chris found it easy.

“I’ll show you.”

Chris’s left eye was [Perception], and his right eye was [Far-sight]. With these abilities, Chris could instantly grasp the layout of the people and the castle.

Moreover, Chris had equipped an artifact, the Silent Wind, which allowed him to hide his presence.

“Two people ahead… If I slip back and enter through the window, it should be fine.”

Chris took small, quiet steps, but then hid behind a pillar, gazing at the opponent’s figure on the other side of the wall.

“Isn’t something strange?”

“Indeed. It’s almost time for the enemy’s attack team to arrive.”

“Are you sure they have 10 people on defense?”

“We’ll find out when the scouting team returns.”

The enemy team was waiting safely, with their main force stationed at the royal palace. Chris was frustrated.

“Ah, third, fifth, eighth! They’re all on defense, aren’t they?”

Chris swallowed his saliva.

The moment he was discovered, he would be torn apart by those monsters.

However, thanks to his slender body, Chris managed to conceal himself perfectly behind the pillar.

As the relative had passed without knowing anything, Chris had snuck into the palace through the 2nd-floor balcony on the outskirts.

But.

Boom!

He had misstepped and fallen, and now he was in trouble.

‘I’ll just get up and succeed!’

His heart was racing like mad.

Chris’s eyes, which had sucked in his breath, were again infused with Mana.

As expected, there were three Original Numbers guarding the king in the palace. Chris carefully mimicked their conversation to try to understand what they were talking about.

‘I’m…… checking the 2nd floor? Could I be going up?’

A bad prediction usually doesn’t go wrong.

A while ago, one of the Original Numbers had come up because of the noise Chris made when he fell.

But Chris didn’t run away; instead, he hid his presence at the entrance.

Thanks to his experience in battle survival, Chris’s combat sense had become sharp. Although he might lose in a duel, it was a different story in battle.

“…… No one’s cup!”

Chris’s dual swords had been stabbed into his opponent’s weakness with precision. Chris shut his mouth to prevent himself from making a sound and whispered.

“Did you relax? Wait for me outside the portal~”

* * *

As he looked at Bail, who had a brown-haired wig with a crown on top, he muttered to himself.

“Why didn’t Ritrak come down?”

“I don’t know.”

It had been an hour since the test began.

The students didn’t want to do anything, and their stomachs began to rumble.

“You should go up and…… ah?”

At that moment, Bail felt his head getting lighter. He turned his head suddenly and saw Chris holding the crown.

“You, you! How did you get here?”

Chris smiled slightly and said to Bail, who was stuttering.

“I’m sorry. But you don’t need to fight for the crown, do you?”

– The test is over.

– The winning team is……

* * *

The day after the exam.

Romina was surrounded by papers in the professor’s office.

“This one passed……”

The paper she was reading was the ranking of students, which she would report to Selphi. It included the rankings of 1st-year students as well. Romina’s eyes, which had been tired from staying up late, suddenly lit up.

“And! From 97th to 9th!?”

This was because of Chris’s ranking.

“What did she do in the exam to go from 97th to the top number?”

Romina eventually became curious and checked Chris’s opposing team.

The team that included 3rd, 5th, and 8th place was the team of death.

“‘Jien received special training, and then……'”

Chris, who had grown through external competitions, had finally secured the top number.

Growth was too rapid.

“‘It’s true, the party is Jien’s.'”

However, Romina thought of Jien and immediately acknowledged it. There were people who had risen from 162nd to the top number, after all.

“‘Now I remember Jien is……'”

Romina, who had flipped through many papers, finally found the paper she was looking for after a long time.

[Jien Russell]

Thumping sound.

As Romina tried to confirm the ranking, she stopped her hand.

“This is too interesting to keep to myself!”

Suddenly, Romina took out her phone.

She called Kasha, speaking in a trembling voice.

“What’s up?”

-Nothing.

“Busy?”

– Busy.

The conversation continued with short answers, and Romina’s forehead furrowed, but she managed to hold it back.

“I was sorting out the student rankings. By the way, there’s also 1st-year data. Do you understand what I mean?”

Kasha’s response stopped.

A 10-second silence passed, and then Kashen let out a long sigh.

“What shall we get?”

“Coffee!”

“Don’t check first.”

“Of course not.”

Romina took out Ji-en’s documents and put them away separately in a drawer.

***

Arkan’s office.

There, Selphi’s cheerful humming was overflowing.

“Hahahah! It’s really going well, isn’t it?”

It started with a scholarship.

I was going to ask Yuvel, the president and the master of the top, for an increase in scholarship, but then the Ma-top Terror incident occurred.

However, Ji-en, a student at Arkan, had saved Yuvel’s only daughter, Isabelle.

Next was the Battle Survival.

A collaborative game with the Saber school, the largest-scale broadcast in history.

Arkan won the championship in that historical competition.

‘It was Ji-en back then!’

Hahahah – Selphi’s happy laughter.

Now, he was expecting only Ji-en.

‘Hahahah, 5th-grade virtual gate… I wonder if Ji-en has cleared it too!’

The name of the academy, of course.

The name of the current Arkan principal, Selphi, would also be recorded in history.

That’s an honor that Saber can’t match.

With a satisfied face, Selphi checked the documents.

“Ah, just in time for the cleanup.”

Arkan Party.

Romina had organized Ji-en’s party member rankings by grade level, making it easy for Selphi to check.

“Romina-sensei is really good at this kind of thing! Hahahah!”

Selphi smiled happily and checked the documents. First was Chris.

[Chris Arun 9th]

Chris rose an astonishing 87 places from 97th to 9th.

“Ah, it’s finally happened. We’ve become the Number One team. Haha, what a great achievement! 97th place, growing to this extent is incredible!”

[Amy Rose, 4th place]

From noble mtl dot come

Amy remained in 4th place, maintaining her ranking.

[Isabel Blitzen, 3rd place]

Isabel’s ranking was an impressive 3rd.

Suddenly, a tense moment arrived.

Sephia, the last member to remain, swallowed her saliva.

Snap.

“Then… Jen is!”

Flick.