Editing CubexCursedxCurious:Volume17 Chapter5 (section)

===Part 10===

Pendragon had no intention of backing down either.

He had a reason to move forward no matter what. No matter what he must do.

He had something he had to do.

Hence, if anyone got in his way&mdash;the only option was to eliminate them, of course. Even if they knew each other or could be described as old friends.

(However... What a nuisance.)

The opponent was definitely not strong. Simply in terms of strength, the knights in the school were definitely stronger.

However, such a hassle. Like yesterday, Ganon's Void Night Sword would neutralize all of his offensive and defensive maneuvers&mdash;forcibly leading to a "tied" result. In that unsteadily swaying manner.

Pendragon introduced changes in his movements in an attempt to disrupt her rhythm, but Zenon&mdash;as well as Sekaibashi at calculated moments&mdash;would throw knives, which were impossible to ignore. While he was dodging the knives, Ganon would recover her position.

Only time and energy were being worn away bit by bit. Although this applied to the other party as well... For Sekaibashi's team, that was precisely their goal. To prevent him from advancing, to deplete his time and energy. That was their only goal, never intending to win from the very start.

"So, what should I do...?"

"How about surrendering by going 'uwah~ I admit defeat~'? Also recording that and broadcasting it on Dragon Island. Then, oh dear, how incredible, the beautiful school physician's popularity would skyrocket from defeating Number One."

"Although I don't think it's possible, do you really want to become the Commander?"

"Of course not, too tiring."

Pendragon conversed while using his full strength to push Granaury down in a spiral motion. Taking this attack head on would surely mean disembowelment&mdash;no, understatement&mdash;it would not be surprising even if her body instantly split into top and bottom halves. However, Ganon used the blade's body to absorb the impact with finesse, even performing a side flip in the air on purpose to dissipate the fist's force. Just as Pendragon was going to follow up his attack at the moment of her landing, Zenon and Sekaibashi threw countless knives, containing his movements.

(Tsk...)

Ganon's Void Night Sword was not a technique that could persist forever, after all. Despite looking relaxed in motion, that was only on the surface&mdash;requiring the control, understanding and manipulation of the entire body's nerves, it consumed unimaginable stamina. Even more so if one were to take the consumption of mental energy into account. Spending the same amount of time to wave a sword randomly without thinking would probably be much less taxing.

She was going to tire out, but with Sekaibashi and Zenon's support, she had already established a routine to recover her energy through momentary breaks. Her limit had yet to arrive.

Pendragon discovered that her technique had become more refined compared to yesterday. Deadly battles were more effective than any sort of training. Through yesterday's combat, she had recalled old memories then progressed further&mdash;What a waste of talent. This meant that Long's discerning eye had picked the right successor, didn't he?

In the end&mdash;

(Right now... she has achieved perfect balance to become a perfect master of the Void Night Sword. Without disrupting her degree of perfection, it's probably impossible for me to surpass her Void Night Sword.)

He admitted it, but this was absolutely no declaration of defeat. Of course. From the very start, his mind had not considered this a battle&mdash;It was more like an annoying cleaning task. Something dirty was in his way. Without scrubbing it away, there was no way to advance to the next destination.

(So, I just need to disrupt the balance from her degree of perfection. Let's see what can be taken away, or perhaps...)
[[image:C3 17-155.png|thumb]]

This time, he unleashed a barrage of attacks, prioritizing speed instead of power. Ganon blocked this wave as though dancing.

"How like a dance. I'd gladly take you out tonight if you'll let me."

"What a tiring invitation... Max-kun, please save such words for the young women you ilke."

"Oh? But I don't dislike you."

"Oh really? But I find it hard to accept a flirty guy like you, Max-kun. Not my cup of tea."

"You like older men who give off airs of stability and maturity, right?"

"You know me too well."

Even while chatting like this, the precision of her movements remained unchanged, unshaken at all.

Ganon was currently strong and stable in mind. Trying to take away from that might be challenging. In that case&mdash;

(Or perhaps... ''Something extra could be added''.)

This was very simple.

Exceedingly simple indeed.



The superintendent watched as Pendragon charged forward recklessly. He made a thrust with Granaury's blade on the back of his hand, but Ganon blocked him with her sword.

Up to now, things were the same as before, except&mdash;

"...!"

Ganon showed alarm on her face in a rare display. Pendragon's fist, in other words, Granaury's blade, caught Ganon's sword and applied a vector to it&mdash;towards his own neck.

Confronted with this unexpected development, Ganon froze for merely an instant. She definitely could kill Pendragon if the sword continued its thrust. This was precisely Pendragon's goal in redirecting her sword.

However, she resisted. Without a choice, she resisted.

In stark contrast to the Void Night Sword's naturalness&mdash;Unnaturalness.

That instant was an opening.

And Maximilian Pendragon was a man nowhere naive enough to miss this opening.

"Having fought for so long, I'd notice no matter how oblivious... You don't seriously want to kill me from the bottom of your heart. For the unprincipled Void Night Sword whose characteristic is split-second adaptability&mdash;You can't hold on to this kind of principle."

Using the instant when Ganon's body froze, Pendragon flipped his right arm. At the same time, Granaury's blade retracted slightly while in contact with Ganon's sword&mdash;Just by doing that, the sword, which seemed stuck to Ganon's hand until now, was blown away.

"Ganon-kun!"

The superintendent had no time to consider consequences. The feeling of tendons twisting. The feeling of muscles screaming in pain. Ignoring these feelings, he did everything he could to drive his limbs to throw the knives in his hands. Like how he had killed countless foes in the past&mdash;Mercilessly, raising speed and power to the maximum, he threw by pulling all the stops. Presumably seeing her elder sister in crisis, Zenon also threw as many knives as she could at the same time.

Zenon's knives descended upon Pendragon like a rainstorm that was blown horizontally by the wind. Pendragon had the left side of his body towards them, hence Riko could concentrate her armor on the left side for defense. After merely a millisecond's delay, the superintendent's knife flew over&mdash;but did not touch Pendragon.

The knife flew past his feet.

''Striking the hilt of an earlier knife that was embedded in the ground, it bounced up''.

As though reflected, it bounced upwards.

The knife flew towards where the armor was relatively thin due to defending against Zenon's rain of knives&mdash;the right side of Pendragon's body.

Stab him. Strike him. At least make him move. Even dodging would be good. In any case, if he could be prevented from delivering a lethal blow to Ganon&mdash;

But just at that moment, the superintendent saw snow-white skin behind Pendragon.

"What...!?"

Originally on Pendragon's right hand, Grananury instantly took human form.

She struck down the superintendent's knife flying from a dead angle.

A naked body of snow-white complexion. Seen so few times that one could count them out, her eyes, always partially closed&mdash;They look like they were pitying something.

"By the way, people all say that I've become a gentleman the more I aged, contrary to all expectation. They even say that I'm beginning to resemble Long, despite having no blood relation. So..."

Unfazed by the absence of Granaury's blade, Pendragon still drew his right arm back.

Towards Ganon in front of him, laughing as though he wanted to say "ridiculous":

"A man like me not your cup of tea? Stop lying."

As though resigning, Ganon suddenly relaxed her tense expression and said:

"You realized it?"

In the next second, the fist descended, sending her body flying away like a puppet.



Next&mdash;The result was easily predicted.

Earlier, they had barely maintained balance in something of a miracle. Once one corner collapsed, opposing the "strongest" was no longer possible.

His entire body in abject pain, collapsed on the ground, the superintendent turned his face. This was already his limit. He could not even lift a finger. Overexerting himself to mobilize his muscles, nerves and tendons... Everything was screaming, halted in activity. In other words, dead. I guess I'll have to spend my days in a wheelchair like the Dominion Lord for a while&mdash;Assuming I survive this.

Ganon was completely buried in a wall. Having spat out blood, there was a patch of bright red on her chest&mdash;to the point that it was a miracle that a massive hole had not opened up on her body. But definitely, she must have broken many bones with damage to internal organs. Of course, she was also unconscious. Strands of her hair looked like they were shaking slightly. Hopefully, she was still breathing&mdash;As long as this was not an illusion born out of his optimism.

Zenon was lying sprawled nearby, her right elbow twisted in a strange direction. Scattered and glittering in her surroundings were the broken fragments of throwing knives. Groaning on the ground, she was probably trying her utmost to get up. There were heartrending bloodstains on her limbs and face.

The superintendent gulped and applied force through his convulsing throat.

"Zenon-kun, it would be best not to strain yourself."

"Un... acceptable."

"Enough. By this point, both of you have done more than enough for me."

By this point. Did she realize the hidden meaning in these words? Not only the battle here at school, but also starting from their Draconian days as well as after deserting the organization.

He was thinking, how fortunate to have them willing to follow a broken man like him.

"Clearly I was never able to reward you."

"...If there really was no reward, I would not have... retracted the resignation letter I almost handed over on many occasions."

"You don't mean... salary, right?"

"Must I really spell it out?"

"...Sorry."

Listening to Zenon's sulking voice, the superintendent smiled wryly. Just doing so made his throat hurt badly and caused trouble in breathing&mdash;It was already pointless, so he took off his gas mask.

Then within his unobscured view, he gazed at the slowly approaching figure.

"Hello, long time no see."

"Hello there, it's been forever."

Maximilian Pendragon. Or perhaps, just plain Pendragon.

As though declaring things were "over"&mdash;with a completely naked young girl clinging to his shoulder and Granaury waiting by his side with her massive wobbling bust.

"I admit my defeat. I guess someone who retired shouldn't try to stage a comeback to act cool. I don't care what you do with me but please show mercy to those two. They're just caught up in my foolhardiness."

"I decided a long time ago to leave good women alive as much as possible. Even a woman who fell in love with a certain someone who's not me despite knowing there would be no reward, or a woman who still can't forget a certain someone who's already passed away."

Then Pendragon closed one eye suggestively and laughed:

"Besides, they might realize my charm at the last moment and become my good companions. Possibilities are very important."

"Y-You bastard! You have absolutely no self-control at all&mdash;!"

Riko began to hammer the back of Pendragon's head. Completely unconcerned, he turned his gaze slightly and said:

"Just as you can see, as an actual believer of female supremacy, I can't oppose these two ladies. Living under their oppression every day, how tragic my life... So apparently, it's not up to me to decide your final fate."

"...May I decide?"

"Yes."

A moment later, Granaury walked over without hiding her naked body at all. She had clearly stated how she hated the superintendent's state of weakness. He was very weak indeed. Now, he was also defeated.

"St...op...!"

Zenon's voice called out. He deliberately avoided looking in her direction.

No matter what his final fate&mdash;He would only accept it willingly. That was enough to satisfy him. Having driven this body past its limits until it could move no longer, assuming Zenon and Ganon were not going to be killed, he had no regrets anymore.

(I've done... everything I could. We must have bought at least some amount of time... I'm sorry, but the rest will have to be entrusted to them...)

Her hand&mdash;belonging to one whose true nature was a spear, in other words, a hand that could easily pierce human flesh&mdash;grabbed his collar.

"...'Coward.' Indeed, that was what others used to call you."

With force almost enough to rip his collar off, she pulled his face towards her&mdash;

Then&mdash;

''Her lips were pressed upon his lips''.

"!?"

A soft sensation. The caress of breaths. The wriggling of tongues.

A moment later, when she moved her lips away&mdash;their saliva could be seen adhering to her tongue.

"It would be too cowardly if you had done this on purpose."

"...?"

"I intended to kill you but I changed my mind. When you showed me... these."

She stroked his face with her fingers, stroking the tattoo of the dragon eye that was supposed to be on his cheek.

"This Dragon Wound, this hair, this nose, and these eyes... Why did you bare them only now? Excessively unchanged, excessively nostalgic. And those feelings are screaming that killing you would be such a shame, hence&mdash;"

"Hence?'

"Hence, I shall claim you as my trophy."

An urge to laugh flowed into his heart. His entire body almost became drained of strength.

She was very strong. He was very weak. Had he already become hers?

"The right to refuse... Denied?"

"Indeed. It would trouble me greatly if you died."

She separated from him and stood up.

Then looking down at him with those rarely revealed eyes, she said with an even rarer smile:

"Because I love/hate you from the bottom of my heart."

Contradictory words spoken by the spear that embraced contradiction, they were quite incomprehensible yet very easy to understand at the same time. This was very contradictory too.

"Haha," the superintendent laughed in a hoarse voice. As soon as he laughed, his entire body lost strength. Slipping, he lost balance and his back struck the ground. His eyelids felt so heavy too. No matter how hard he tried to keep them open, all he could see was the sky.

"So&mdash;time to do what needs to be done."

This voice was heard together with receding footsteps.

"...Having agreed to let me decide, have you any objections? Master."

"Haha~ None at all."

"I'm so angry that only Granaury gets to be satisfied! Hey Maximilian, I believe it's the right time to reward me for working hard! In other words, umm, give me the same sense of satisfaction!"

"Yes yes, a kiss, right?"

"Now isn't the time for that sort of behavior, is it?"

"Muununu, hey! Granaury, don't get in my way! You big-boobed monster!"

The victors gradually left in a noisy departure.

Nearby, Zenon could be heard murmuring:

"...Philanderer. This is one more item that needs to be reported to Liz."

Carrying all sorts of meanings.

The superintendent muttered in reply: "Give me a break."