Capítulo 42: A New Turn [9]
"S-stop! Stop! The duel is over!"
*Thud!*
"Huff... huff..."
Wyll's body finally fell as I got pushed back by a very strong arm belonging to the supervisor of the spar.
It wasn't until Mr. Peut intervened that I woke up from the blissful trance of pure violence. Having spent most of my mana, as well as most of my physical stamina, I was completely exhausted. Despite that, I still felt better than I had ever felt before.
The warmth of Wyll's blood on my knuckles, the sensation of my fists against my enemy's flesh, and the image of my opponent lying unconscious on the ground was just... exhilarating, addicting even.
I had never thought of myself as a violent person, but after just a few fights, I wasn't sure anymore.
"Wyll! Hey, Wyll!"
Seeing Mr. Peut now lightly shaking Wyll in an attempt to wake him up, I didn't even feel the slightest bit of guilt for what I had done. Not only was he the one who challenged me, but we also had a teacher who could have stepped in at any point, similar to how a coach could throw in the white towel in boxing.
So, whose responsibility was it to stop the match when one of the fighters was getting pummeled? It was the responsibility of either the judge or the coach.
"I will take him to the infirmary. Make way!"
As his attempts at waking up the unconscious swordsman were futile, Mr. Peut ended up picking Wyll up from the ground and carrying him away, leaving me in the middle of an audience who all watched me in silence.
'Seems like they didn't expect things to end like this...'
From George who now quickly turned around and left the sports hall, to Cerus who looked at me with a stern face, the reactions in the crowd were varied. There was even a very tall man with gray hair who licked his lips as if he was looking at his next delicious meal.
However, there was one individual whose face I couldn't miss. A face of fear, frustration, and, most importantly, sadness. I had no idea why Celine appeared to be so distressed, but it still made my stomach twist a bit. Not because I thought that I had done something wrong, but because I for some reason didn't feel all too good knowing that I had made her upset.
"-Let's go..."
"-Man, that was... something."
"-Hey, Cerus, Celine, let's go? The spar is over, you know?"
Slowly but surely, the spectators began to leave one after another, shuffling out of the sports hall until there were very few people left. Although it looked like Jacob and Rose had tried to get Cerus and Celine to leave, they had decided to stay for a bit.
Upholding two very different demeanors, the two of them both seemed to have something to say to me but as neither of them appeared to be able to muster up the courage to speak, I was the one to initiate a conversation. I wasn't about to wait the whole day just for them to speak.
"...what are you guys doing?"
Finally, Cerus took a step forward, still looking at me like a parent who was about to scold his child.
"Why didn't you stop? Surely you must've seen that you had already won, yet you continued."
To him, it must've felt like an excellent question, but to me, it was just silly. The answer to that question was one of the basic rules of all kinds of fighting.
"Because the match wasn't over."
A bit of anger flared up inside his eyes as he heard my answer, making his hands ball up into fists.
"...the match wasn't over? He was already unconscious, wasn't he? Yet, you still didn't stop."
"Yeah, I did. Because the match wasn't over."
"Cerus, maybe we should..."
"It's fine, Celine. We are just talking."
Noticing that Cerus was getting heated, Celine took a feeble step forward as well and grabbed the hem of his shirt, but unfortunately for her, Cerus wasn't about to give up just yet.
"So, you are telling me that as long as no one interrupts you, the fight isn't over? You didn't even allow him to fall to the ground for god's sake!"
"...are you stupid?"
"Huh...?"
"I asked, are you really that naïve? If I allowed him to fall to the ground, and I took a step back as soon as I suspected that he might've fallen unconscious, what would have happened if I was wrong?"
"Ray! There's no need to be rude! Cerus isn't trying to..."
"I said it's fine, Celine! And Ray, I understand what you're trying to say, but it was just a spar! There is never a need to go that far!"
It was interesting to listen to Cerus' reasoning, but in the end, he was sadly just straight-up wrong. Even now, with my vision a bit blurry and my head in the gutter, I was still thinking more clearly than him.
"Just a spar? Do you think Wyll thought it was just a spar when he gathered all of you guys here?"
Cerus flinched as I had hit the nail on the head.
"That..."
"Also, didn't we have a supervising teacher who was responsible for intervening as soon as he thought it could get dangerous? Yet, he didn't intervene. So with this in mind, if the teacher didn't think the match was over, why would I think so?"
"But... That's just..."
Unable to construct a proper retort, Cerus' gaze fell to the floor in frustration. And now, I suddenly felt bad about this whole thing, even though I wasn't even the one who started the discussion.
"Haaa... anyway, I'm not going to say that you are wrong for having an opinion about the fight. Everyone is allowed to form their own opinions, but all I'm saying is that you shouldn't assume yours to be correct."
Lifting his head a bit, I could see that he still didn't agree with me at all and that he still truly believed that I had been the one in the wrong. But at least for now, he didn't want to keep arguing about it.
"...okay. Celine, let's get out of here."
Turning around, assuming that Celine would follow him, Cerus was once again taken aback. Because Celine just shook her head, showing that she also had something she wanted to tell me. Respecting this, Cerus just nodded a bit.
"I'll wait for you outside then."
"Thanks..."
As Cerus left the hall, I was left with an exceedingly awkward air of tension, waiting for Celine to open her mouth. Her face was still strained with emotions, but she did seem like she had at least to some extent managed to collect herself.
Then, a weak voice broke the silence.
"...was this the reason why you didn't retaliate during our spar?"
"Hmm?"
A weird question was suddenly asked, and although it felt like a bit silly to me, I could see on Celine's face that she thought the opposite.
"I... I saw your face when you were fighting... no when you were beating up Wyll. And... it looked like you enjoyed it... a lot..."
It was a bit strange to see Celine being this feeble, even more so as I had no idea why she felt compelled to talk to me at all. After all, she had already avoided me for almost a full week at this point, and as we barely knew each other, she had no actual reason to be at all invested in what I was doing.
Ultimately, I responded with honesty as I saw no reason to lie, and after she had helped me out at the gym, I thought she deserved it.
"Yeah, I enjoyed it."
"...I see. Because to me it didn't look like you chose not to stop, but... that you weren't able to stop..."
'Ah. She got me.'
Yes, simply put, that was the truth. Even though I had been dispelling Cerus' attempts at scolding me with reasonable explanations, the honest truth was that I had been in too much pleasure to stop. I hadn't even realized that Wyll had fallen unconscious until after Mr. Peut stopped me, due to the trance-like state I had fallen into.
Celine suddenly showed a small smile as I wasn't responding.
"I was right, wasn't I?"
"..."
I still didn't answer. Because I was afraid that if I admitted to it, it would change who I was completely. It was scary, it truly was. The way I enjoyed fighting... no, the way I enjoyed destroying my enemies was too addicting. So much so that my mind was already thinking about the next time I would get to experience the same kind of pleasure again.
"...then, thank you... I'll see you tomorrow in class."
"Huh?"
Out of nowhere, still wearing her feeble smile, Celine suddenly thanked me, throwing me off completely, only to then turn around and walk away, leaving me stumped.
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