"....."
Kina fell silent, her disguise having just been exposed so easily right in front of Lurker. Of course, she’d never actually expected to fool them indefinitely.
Still, she hadn’t anticipated it happening quite this fast. But that wasn’t necessarily a bad thing.
Kina smiled. "We first met when I was still little, right? It’s been a while, Master Lurker."
That first meeting had been an awkward one. Even Lurker still remembered it fairly clearly, the first time Kina had come down, revealing herself still a small child.
Her body had been frail back then, her clothes obviously in poor condition, her body covered in wounds, while her face had shown almost no emotion at all, only emptiness.
"...Lady Kina, you’ve grown up quite well, haven’t you," Even though Lurker didn’t fully understand what had happened since then, seeing her this cheerful now, he sensed that her growth hadn’t been bad at all.
With a restrained smile, Kina let out a small sigh. Meanwhile, Lurker didn’t linger long, glancing around briefly. He had plenty of questions, but it was clearly rude to ask outright.
Still, if he had to guess at why Kina had ended up in the Slums, why she’d hidden her identity, and the information Lurker had once dismissed as false...
"Are you running away from your family, and using a false identity because of that?"
"Yes."
Lurker nodded in understanding.
If he recalled correctly, Kina Mivelo was regarded as the defective product of the great Mivelo family. That was exactly why she’d never received any real attention or special treatment, especially given the fact that Kina herself wasn’t even fully of noble blood.
She was the illegitimate child of the family’s current head.
’A defective Mivelo product?’ Lurker mulled that over again after witnessing all this, nearly bursting into a fit of disbelieving laughter. ’Isn’t she far more suited to be their finest product instead?’
The great Mivelo family had made an enormous mistake. Lurker found the whole thing genuinely amusing, and more importantly, he wasn’t about to make the same mistake they had, he wasn’t going to let this opportunity slip away.
"What’s your goal now, Lady Kina?"
Kina looked at him with her eyes, a clear blue in Lurker’s view, the kind of gaze that turned remarkably clear when curving into a crescent-moon smile.
"I’ll be going back to the Elite Region, and after that, I’ll make my family understand just how wrong they were about me. I’m quite the vengeful type, you know."
Naturally, Kina was being a bit reckless, revealing her goal so directly like this. But every move here had been carefully calculated, because if there was one real ticket that could carry her back into the Elite Region, it was Lurker Zoldia himself.
Compared to anyone else, Lurker was clearly the most reasonable to negotiate with, and his family had no particularly good relationship with the Mivelos either, so when Kina had deliberately put her talent on display, there was no way Lurker would simply overlook it.
With a small smile on his face, one that was almost entirely imperceptible, Lurker looked at Kina and suddenly said, "In that case, would Lady Kina accept my help?"
"....?"
"I can help you get into the Elite Academy, right next month."
***
The next day, Kina woke up feeling genuinely wonderful. As usual, after her shower, she chose to skip class and train her Frost Edge.
Since she’d won the tournament, and in such a brilliant fashion at that, the Academy wouldn’t just expel her outright, and even if they did, she already had her ticket secured into the Elite Academy.
All that remained was preparing herself, since competition at the Elite Academy operated differently, students there were actively taught to hunt Aliens as a matter of efficiency.
Freeze—!
Kina froze her sword, revealing a gleaming ice blade with an extremely low, razor-sharp temperature, her brow furrowing as she studied the skill for a moment.
"...No, that’s not quite it."
What Kina had managed to apply so far was simply the right technique for coating her sword with Frost Edge, and that alone had been enough to serve as the initial foundation for grasping the skill.
Everything beyond that depended purely on Mastery.
And since this Skill’s baseline quality sat at D-Grade, Kina would likely find progress difficult, though not impossible.
’Since the underlying concept is a bit different, maybe I could try mimicking how Mana coats the blade during One Slash.’
But the goal here wasn’t simply producing a single diagonal slash, it was enhancing sharpness alongside an extreme, freezing cold.
That understanding surfaced in Kina’s mind, but until she could actually put it into practice herself, it remained nothing more than ordinary knowledge.
Fortunately, Kina was anything but ordinary.
She studied for several hours, and by the time the sun had climbed high into the sky, she’d finally managed a small but necessary breakthrough.
[Frost Edge Progress +0.19%]
"....."
Kina wasn’t remotely surprised watching how small that progress gain had been, letting out a small sigh as she glanced around.
As usual, Lurker would always be there, watching her train throughout the day. Unfortunately, this time, Kina had no intention of training all day, and she got up from her spot, preparing to leave.
"You’re not training until evening today, Lady Kina?"
Kina nodded. "Yeah, unfortunately, I’ve got something else to take care of."
With a bright smile, Kina bowed slightly, said her goodbyes, then broke into a light jog, leaving the park behind.
Kina’s mood was genuinely excellent, she felt thoroughly excited, her heart pounding hard. All of this stemmed from her Master telling her he’d be visiting today, specifically in the afternoon.
So, brimming with impatience, she ran down the corridor, then suddenly froze in place.
"Oh. Right."
She caught her reflection in the academy’s gleaming window. Her body was soaked in sweat from training, and she looked genuinely disheveled.
Kina pressed her lips together tightly, she really needed to go shower and clean herself up first.
Meanwhile, on the other side, Julian, having just arrived at the academy, noticed a system notification appear.
[System]
Disciple Skill Progress detected.
Skill: [Frost Edge]
Source Skill Rank: [D]
Progress Gained: [+0.19%]
MASTER Authority activated.
Return Multiplier: [100×]
[Status Update]
[Frost Edge] — [D] — [0.0%] → [Frost Edge] — [D] — [19.0%]
New understanding suddenly surfaced in Julian’s mind, all of it covering everything he needed to know about Frost Edge, and it turned out this skill genuinely earned its D-Grade status for good reason.
It was a powerful skill, exceptionally well-suited for both close-range combat and sustained, prolonged fights. Unfortunately, it might prove difficult for Julian to actually use it himself, given he wasn’t particularly skilled with a sword, but it was clearly excellent as a safety net regardless.
At the very least, this time, he wasn’t relying solely on One Slash for every fight that came his way.
He let out a small sigh, then looked over the academy grounds, having arrived at the very same park he’d seen in his dream.
Except, this still wasn’t the day itself. Julian had only come here because he’d felt he needed to check this area out in person.
His gaze landed on a notice board displaying the schedule for today’s lessons, right here on this Friday.
Meanwhile, in Julian’s dream, the board had shown Saturday instead, which meant the incident would happen tomorrow.
As Julian’s eyes drifted around, he heard someone call out to him. He turned around and found Adelle approaching him.
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