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“Yuli!”

I had mentioned I would drop by to see Yuli, but trying to find her in the bustling festival crowd was like searching for a needle in a desert.

In the end, I reunited with her only after gathering at the pre-arranged spot to watch Anne’s match.

Since it was just before Anne’s match was about to start, I hurried towards the athlete’s seating area.

Squeezing into the packed area, I finally found a spot to sit and looked around, spotting a variety of faces.

Many familiar ones were there, like fellow students who came to cheer for their friends and professors who wanted to see the students’ performances, but there were also quite a few unfamiliar faces.

Some were donned in armor, others in robes, and some just wore regular clothes.

However, what they all had in common was the conspicuous display of their order’s or mage tower’s symbols on their outfits.

Griffin Academy is the most respected academy on the continent, and this competition determines the strongest among its ranks.

They likely came to personally observe and see what kind of offers they might need to make to recruit graduates into their organizations.

Or, they might approach the students well before graduation.

Of course, this competition, while highly entertaining through its rules, also includes many strong contenders who, like me and Selian, are not participating, so it’s hard to take it too seriously.

But it wouldn’t be fair to undermine the 16 students who made it to the tournament’s main event out of the initial 32, especially since they had already faced off for two days.

“Third-year swordsmanship class 2, Grabel! Take your position!”

The announcer’s introduction was surprisingly stiff for such a heated competition.

The boy named Grabel, whose name was called, must have been somewhat famous, as there was quite a loud cheer as he made his way onto the stage.

“First-year swordsmanship class 1, Anne Klein! Take your position!”

When Anne’s name was called, she slowly walked out from the waiting area outside the competition stage.

As she stepped onto the stage with a confidence that was almost comical, she looked so cute that you would question if she was truly 18 years old.

However, contrasting Anne’s petite stature, the striking red hair and the massive great sword that dwarfed even adult men drew everyone’s attention.

Being a first-year without any previous competition experience or outside activities, she still managed to garner even bigger cheers than the students who entered before her, all thanks to just her performance yesterday.

Good. At least in the audience’s cheers, our Anne won!

“Anne, go for it!”

Yuli, Selian, and I cheered her on loudly.

With all the noise, it wouldn’t have been surprising if she didn’t hear us, but amidst the chaos, Anne seemed to pick up our voices and looked directly at us.

Walking to the center stage with a seriousness that felt out of character for her, Anne spotted us and immediately broke into a playful grin that lit up her face.

I waved lightly so as not to disturb the other spectators, and Anne raised her other hand, vigorously waving at us, though I wished she would at least pay attention to where she was going.

Just a moment ago, the two contestants exchanged light greetings as per the judge’s instructions and positioned themselves for the match.

The match ended up being quite one-sided, finishing in the blink of an eye.

As they briefly exchanged a few blows, Anne raised her great sword high and brought it down with one powerful strike, smashing her opponent’s sword in half.

Still, the opponent, a strong contender who made it to the top 16, picked up the remaining half of his sword and charged at Anne, raising his fists as he approached, possibly intending to either land a punch or to wrestle her weapon away.

However, Anne simply threw her sword at him.

Caught off-guard by Anne unexpectedly tossing her great sword, the bewildered opponent couldn’t avoid Anne’s follow-up punch and ended up knocked out cleanly.

It seemed something was regurgitating from his mouth as he lay there, but let’s pretend we didn’t see that.

As the judge declared Anne the winner, she looked our way and flashed a bright smile while extending her hand, making a peace sign in triumph.

“Hmm… Anne Klein, eh? She’s tempting, but I hear she’s the heir to the next head. It may be easier to recruit Grabel, who’s of commoner origin.”

“I hear Anne’s twin brother, Ian Klein, is quite skilled too. It might be worth reaching out to him.”

Amidst this, I could hear voices exchanging opinions regarding Anne in the surroundings.

Of course, it’s to be expected; she’s my friend!

Feeling strangely proud, I thought it would be better to head back to the waiting area to see Anne instead of watching the rest of the matches, so I got up.

“Anne, congratulations!”

Bursting through the door into Anne’s personal waiting room, instead of being greeted by her cheerful voice, I was met with her adorable bear-printed panties.

Had she changed out of her armor into her normal clothes? It seemed she had been in the middle of taking off her tights when we barged in.

While we had seen each other often living in the same dorm, I wasn’t prepared for this sudden sight of Anne in her underwear, and I turned away in embarrassment.

“I enjoyed the match. At this rate, you’ll easily reach the finals.”

Unlike my flustered self, Yuli and Selian entered the waiting room nonchalantly.

I guess it’s strange to be embarrassed about seeing someone of the same gender changing.

Trying to shake off my initial surprise, I reverted to a calm demeanor and approached Anne.

Of course, I did my best to keep my eyes away from her bear-printed panties.

“E-eh, El!?”

However, while we entered and were caught off guard, Anne, who unintentionally showed us her panties, had no choice but to be flustered.

So flustered that she stumbled over her tights, which were half-pulled up her knees, and fell flat on the floor.

Thanks to Anne’s solid physical strength and enhanced physique, she probably wasn’t hurt, but her position made her reveal even more of her bear-printed underwear as she fell.

Upon noticing Anne fall, Yuli quickly rushed over to help her up.

As Anne stood up with Yuli’s support, her face flushed red, clearly embarrassed by how awkwardly she had fallen.

“What, wh-what are you doing here…?”

“What are we here for? We came to congratulate you on making it to the quarter-finals. You were surprised since you saw us yesterday too.”

“Well, that’s true…”

“Aw, there’s no need to be so shy! What’s wrong with us seeing each other change? Right, El?”

“Um, y-yeah! There’s no reason to be shy about it.”

Though, personally, I found it pretty embarrassing.

“See? El is saying the same thing!”

“Y-yeah… Hehe… We’re just girls, so there’s no reason to be embarrassed…”

In response to Yuli’s question, Anne’s face was still bright red as she kept glancing at me, likely out of suspicion.

It seemed she caught me, since I turned away in surprise when I saw her panties when I entered.

If I were just a regular female friend, there wouldn’t be any reason to be embarrassed about seeing her underwear, so her suspicion was justified.

Even while changing her clothes, the way she kept glancing over at me while subtly showing off her underwear seemed like a deliberate tease.

But I didn’t need to worry. I had a genius-level acting skill to deceive Yuli and Selian.

Fortunately, my acting seemed to work on Anne as well, as she appeared to have dropped her suspicion, seeing me maintain a nonchalant and shameless face.

By the way, seeing her face still red while changing must mean that it was incredibly embarrassing for her to fall awkwardly.

“Well then, I’ll go do some winner interviews!”

Having finally changed into regular clothes, Anne left without a moment to share words with us and headed straight out of the waiting room.

With the quarter-finals ahead, followed by the semi-finals and finals, if she wins, it seems Anne will become even busier than now.

The door clicking shut as Anne left left just us in her private waiting room.

“Yuli?”

And then came Selian’s cold voice. It must be related to the talk we had in the morning regarding punishments.

…Should I escape for a moment… or should I stay outside, Selian?

 

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