Training ground in Redcliffe castle.

Demia went outside while listlessly dragging her wooden sword. Inevitably so, as he felt pressured . Moreover――

“Huh? What’s the idea? Even an idiot can tell that she doesn’t have the slightest chance of winning…” Clementine said sarcastically.

“Only the gods know about the chances of victory. What matters most is how much backbone one shows.” Anais cheered in her own way.

“Anyone betting? I’ll bet on Lyla.” Tina the assassin suggested in playful tone.

“Me too. Or rather, is there anyone going to bet on Demia anyway?” Clementine responded.

“I am terribly sorry, but looking at Demia…” Mithra told politely.

“Yep, she’s outclassed.” Tina added.

Any of Demia's remaining motivation got whittled down by the comments of the spectators. 

Scarlet approached Demia and tapped her best friend's shoulder, consoling her,

"It's fine, Demia. Treat this a sparing match to improve yourself. You will be one of those reinforcement for Orlais. This is for Hiro."

"Princess Scarlet.." Demia  smiled in response to her childhood friend's sweet smile.

Consoled by Scarlet, she’d have been able to fire herself up somewhat. 

Lyla came out a little while later. She was shouldering a wooden sword modeled after a great sword.

"Forgive me, Lady Demia. It took me some time to look for a good wooden sword.”

“You’re really going to hold back on me, right?”

“Did I ever lie to you?”

“I had my arm almost broken while believing in those words…,” Demia retorted while rubbing her right arm.

“Did something like that happen?” Lyla answered while scratching her cheek with her index finger.

The scary part about this was that she had apparently forgotten about it for real.

“I will travel to Orlais as reinforcement next week, so make sure to go easy on me, okay?” Demia raised her voice even more.

“I know, I know.”

“Not the going easy on me so that I don’t die, but the going easy on me where I don’t get injured. You understand?”

“Just how little do you trust me?” Lyla said with a fed-up voice when Demia emphasized it once more.

"Honestly, even this much doesn’t give me peace of mind." Demia complained.

They took up positions with around five meters distance between them, and Demia readied her wooden sword. Meanwhile Lyla kept his sword shouldered.

It looked like she was full of openings, but Lyla’s swordsmanship was self-taught. It didn’t follow any common, established way of fighting.

“Come on Lady Demia, how long are you going to keep up this staring contest?”

“I’m aiming to let you go first,” Demia answered.

Basically, she was hoping for a counter.

“No choice. I’ll go along…with that provocation of yours!”

Lyla stepped in, closing the distance in a breath. Coupled with the pressure, it made the small framed girl appear as if she had grown into a giant. Demia suspected that she very likely wouldn’t be able to experience anything like that in his former Castall kingdom. And even just describing it with a talented fighter fell short since Lyla was the most formidable fighter in the country. Demia had to not only watch out for her weapon but also her battle tactics.

Suddenly, Demia's visual field got shaded, causing her to leap to the side. She didn’t have the spare time to consider why her visual field had suddenly become darker. She obeyed the voice warning her that she’d be in danger if she stayed where she was. In the next instant, a wind blew past and a dull thud could be heard. Lyla’s sword had hit the stone paving.

Sweat started to gush out at once. If she hadn’t jumped sideways, her head would have been cracked open like a ripe watermelon. And even if it hadn’t gone that far, it was clear that her skull had been cracked at the very least from that strike. Demia vividly felt like complaining about this, but she didn’t have any time for that. The next attack was approaching. An attack that seemed to crawl across the ground.

She guessed that Lyla was simply intending to swipe her feet, but if she was hit directly by that, hee legs would very likely break.

She thought in her mind,

"Should I dodge by jumping? No, when Lyla was in actual war, she  had brandished a sword with the same size as her current wooden training sword. If she got as much strength as a man, it should be an easy feat to change the trajectory of a wooden sword on the fly. It’s also possible that I’ll lose all ways out if I evade by jumping."

Demia pointed her own sword towards the ground, supporting it with a leg. If there was no option to jump, she could only parry the attack, she had decided. Lyla lightly widened her eyes, apparently having guessed Demia’s aim, and smiled innocently. A smile reminiscent of an angel of death.

The wooden sword clashed, and the impact was passed on through Demis’s whole body. She reflexively checked her own leg as she thought that it might have been blown away.

Hee leg and sword were fine, but Demia widened her eyes in shock. The blue sky was sprawling underneath his feet. Once she lifted her face, she saw her opponent standing on her head. At that point she finally realized that she’d been turned over by receiving Lyla’s powerful attack.

It was a strength that could only be labeled as absurd ― and unworldly. The sensation of being afloat engulfed her body, so she immediately extended one hand towards the ground. Twisting her body just like that, she landed as if to confront Lyla directly.

"Woooo!" The spectating girls voiced up their surprise.

As might be expected, even Lyla appeared to be surprised by that unthinkable acrobatic feat.

Demia thrust out her sword, thinking that she found an opening, but suddenly her knees lost all strength. Obviously some damage of having blocked the earlier attack still remained. Lyla dodged the thrust by jumping backwards. It was a response that seemed too excessive, but it probably included the possibility of Demia feinting.

Demia clicked her tongue. She also did so towards Lyla  showing no openings, but it was also a display of frustration as she failed to capitalize on a rare opportunity. And to go even further, it was also a display of vexation that her plan of claiming victory by hitting once had dissipated into thin air.

“You’ve become quite resolute, haven’t you, Lady Demia?”

“I’ve experienced countless real combat, so it’s only logical for my resolve to have solidified a bit, don’t you think?” Demia replied in a casual manner.

Lyla was smiling, but that smile didn’t reach her eyes. She was trying to ascertain how much damage Demia had taken away from the earlier exchange. Demia thought that it wouldn’t hurt her opponent to be less on guard with her since there was so much difference in ability with them, but she also saw this as an opportunity.

Lyla was trying to read Demia's state, so if she played it smart, she’d be able to buy time to recover. Or so she thought, but Lyla shouldered his wooden sword.

“Looks like I’ll be able to enjoy myself a bit longer then――right!?” Lyla provoked her  hard-pressed opponent.

As Lyla swung her sword down, Demia dodged by leaping sideways. The wooden tip of Lyla’s sword hit the stone paving. Another ground-crawling immediately followed, but Demia barely managed to pull her body up and jump across the attack.

Lyla giggled cheerfully, apparently having promoted her much more inferior fighter to the status of a fun playmate over this short span of time.

“So you did fake being dead!”

“I haven’t done anything like that,” Demia shouted back at Lyla.

It was a fact that her leg had taken damage and she was still reeling from it.

Demia thought, "It’d have been great if I could have bought some more time――no, right now I don’t have any time to bother thinking about stuff like that."

Lyla rotated her sword and launched another of those ground-creeping attacks. Demia suspected that she was following some scheme as this was already the third time of the same attack. She stared directly into Lyla’s eyes, hoping she’d be able to see through the aim here.

However, her hopes ended up in vain as she couldn’t guess anything from Lyla’s eyes or expression. Demia judged that to be logical since he wasn’t a mind reader or something like that. Moreover, she was only a teenager. If the best fighter im the country could be read by such a greenhorn, she’d have croaked on some battlefield long ago. In the first place, if one could read the intention of another person by just looking into their eyes, lie detectors would be totally useless.

Just as Demia asked herself what she should do, the trajectory of Lyla’s sword changed. All of a sudden, the tip shot upwards, and at that point, Demia finally understood the reason why Lyla had used the same attack three times in a row. Her objective was to make Demia focus on the area around her feet.

Demia evaded this attack by crouching. She felt a gust of wind pass above her head, and she decided to assess the burnt scent as part of her imagination. Once she breathed out, exhaustion suddenly weighed down on her. The fight shouldn’t have lasted more than 10 minutes so far, and yet she was already in this sort of state.

Lyla shouldered her sword.

Demia thought, "Probably to give me some time to get my breathing in order. No, that cannot be."

If Lyla was a man capable of such considerate action, Demia wouldn’t have run away from their duel.

Since she’s not the sort of person who would recommend others to give up, it’s probably some sort of provocation.

As if to prove Demia’s suspicion true, Lyla revealed a daring smile and said, “What’s wrong? You’ve been running――”

“Why is she only dodging?”

“That is because there is too much of a difference in abilities. Given that Demia would end up crushed if she took one of Lyla’s attacks, she has been running.”

Mithra and Scarlet interrupted Lyla’s question, resulting in them robbing her off her chance to lure Demia in by provoking her.

“You heard them. That’s the reason.”

“I provoked you while aware of that! You’re not telling me anything new here!!”

Lyla retorted with her face bright red when Demia answered politely. Apparently quite embarrassed, she stepped in deeply and swung her sword down at Demia. Normally, Demia would dodge to the side, but she deliberately stepped forward――or to be more precise, she stepped diagonally to the front.

Lyla's sword grazed her body, causing a chill to run down her spine. She perceived Lyla out of the corner of his eyes. She had stopped moving as she had just finished her swing. The instant she thought that she’d be able to claim victory if she could turn around and thrust out her own sword, an impact ran through her body. Lyla had her body slammed.

But, the ramming attack didn’t connect fully. Right before Lyla’s body had run into her, Demia had kicked off the ground, evading a direct hit. Demia delivered a single flash of her wooden sword as she turned around. The tip of her sword grazed Lyla’s clothes, causing Lyla to happily laugh out.

"Not bad――”

“Yes! I won! Victory is mine! Yahoo!” Demia yelled, interrupting Lyla.

“what you’re saying, Lady Demua!? We’ve only started our battle!”

“We’re in no battle! Okay, I’m done here. It’s my victory!” Demia shouted while clapping her hands together.

"You .." Lyla muttered as she let her eyes wander.

She was probably looking for a judge. Unfortunately for her, the only ones present were girls who wanted to see her undefeated record tarnished. It was unthinkable that any of them would judge in Demia’s disfavor.

Scarlet giggled and announced, "If this was an actual battle with a real sword, Lyla would definitely win, hands down. How about it, Lyla? Just give us face.." Scarlet persuaded.

"Tsk. If Princess Scarlet said so. No choice, I guess,” Lyla clicked her tongue and shouldered her wooden sword.

It looked like she admitted his defeat, albeit unwillingly. 

Just when relief started to spread in her chest――

Suddenly, Mithra the dalish girl strode towards Lyla. 

"Miss Lyla!" Mithra called her.