WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Oblivious

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ The Weakest Knight Became a Swordmaster, But Only in Dungeons ◈

Chapter 38: Final Exam - Interlude

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A few minutes before Group B’s final exam ended.

‘Not here?’

Her pale blue hair, tied into low twin tails, fluttered along with her clothes.

She stood still atop a floating blue mana sword, looking down at the abandoned city of Himeguard.

The figure was Lara Twislope.

As she spread out her Fish Swords and eliminated cadets, Lara was struck by a nagging doubt.

‘My aura sense is spread farther through the Fish Swords too. There’s no way I can’t find him like this...?’

No matter where she searched the testing grounds, she could not find Ron Hazely.

Then Lara realized something and let out a hollow laugh.

‘Ah. He’s already been eliminated.’

Ron had always survived by exceeding her expectations, so she had mistakenly assumed he would still be alive this time as well.

No matter what, Ron was still one of the weaker cadets. And this test involved fighting randomly assigned cadets.

There was no way he could still be standing.

‘Right. This is normal.’

She had reached such an obvious conclusion far too late.

Lara realized that she had been expecting too much from Ron.

Her interest plummeted. The motivation that had been burning so fiercely turned cold.

Somehow... she felt a little disappointed.

Pop!

A firework exploded.

[The Group B final exam has ended. Everyone, come out through the main gate.]

Instructor Rachel’s mana-amplified voice echoed through the abandoned city.

Whoosh!

Most of the Fish Swords scattered at once into blue motes of light.

Lara controlled the Fish Sword she was riding and gently descended to the ground near the main gate.

When Lara stepped into the air, several remaining Fish Swords flew beneath her feet and arranged themselves into stairs.

She stepped down the Fish Sword staircase and exited through the main gate.

The cadets watched her with a mixture of awe and fear. Even outside the abandoned city, Lara’s imposing figure was plainly visible.

“Lara Twislope, any injuries?”

“No.”

“Good. Go rest over there.”

“Yes.”

Lara went over to where the cadets who had completed the test were gathered and sat beside her best friend, Elise Lorendia.

“You were amazing, Lara. That was so cool.”

“Well, it’s me.”

Elise praised her with a bright smile, and Lara shrugged nonchalantly.

Inside, though, she was smugly thinking, ‘Heh. That’s just who I am...’

‘Still, it’s a little disappointing.’

Lara clicked her tongue.

She had thought she might get to see Ron’s extraordinary side for herself. She had wondered how he would handle things.

But all those expectations had come to nothing.

‘Hm?’

Then Lara felt something was off.

‘Why hasn’t Group C’s test started?’

At first, she thought it was because they were still carrying away injured cadets, but everyone who needed treatment had already been taken to the healers’ camp.

‘Don’t tell me...?’

An impossible possibility crossed Lara’s mind.

Then, as if confirming it, a male cadet with light brown hair walked out through the abandoned city’s main gate.

His clothes were covered in dirt, as though he had been rolling around everywhere.

‘Ron Hazely!?’

Lara could not close her mouth. The nearby cadets widened their eyes as well.

Instructor Logan saw Ron Hazely, the light brown haired cadet, and grinned as though he had expected this all along.

[Logan, everyone in Group B has exited.]

A small golem perched on Logan’s shoulder relayed Instructor Rachel’s voice.

“Next! Group C, enter!”

Only then did Logan allow Group C to enter.

Ron headed toward the cadets who had completed the test.

Then he gave Violet Blackgarden and the Barbarian Turak a thumbs-up, joking around with them.

Lara could not take her wide eyes off Ron.

‘How...?’

Where on earth had he hidden?

Within a certain range, Lara could spread her aura sense through her Fish Swords.

Whether underground or anywhere else, there had been nowhere her aura sense could not reach.

Yet she had failed to determine Ron’s location anywhere.

“Oh, Lara!”

“...!”

Ron approached Lara with an excited expression despite the confused gazes of the other cadets.

“You were seriously amazing!”

“What...?”

“Whoa, that was overwhelming. It was terrifying. I really felt the gap between us. I was thinking, ‘Of course Lara can pull off something like that.’”

Lara’s midnight-blue eyes wavered under Ron’s flood of praise. Even her body trembled.

A strong question and an inexplicable sense of defeat filled her mind.

‘What are you doing? Why are you admiring me so casually...?’

Not a single thing she had wanted had come true.

She had not fought Ron, nor had she brought him down.

Ron had effortlessly avoided the large-scale technique she had unleashed with such pride.

Yet Ron was simply enjoying himself, excitedly going on about how incredible she was. As though he had just watched an entertaining spectacle.

Regardless of Ron’s intentions, Lara’s pride took a heavy blow.

“You survived, Ron? That’s impressive~.”

“Yeah. Somehow, I did.”

Elise and Ron exchanged smiles.

“Ah...”

Lara wanted to ask how he had done it right away, but her bruised pride kept her from opening her mouth. Her lips only trembled.

“Cadet Ron Hazely, this way. You need treatment for your injuries.”

“Ah! Yes!”

Ron soon left with a healer.

Elise glanced toward Lara.

Lara’s expression, plainly revealing her complicated feelings, was reflected in Elise’s turquoise eyes.

* * *

Two days passed after I received treatment and got plenty of rest.

Morning training. The training grounds.

“Did everyone rest well!?”

“Yes!!”

“You’d better have! Vacation is still a long way off! Shouldn’t you be worked to the bone one last time!?”

Logan, the instructor with black hair and rough stubble, shouted with a wicked grin.

The cadets had no choice but to swallow their dismay. Even though the final exam was over, there was still no time to rest.

“Then! Morning training begins now!”

We trained on various equipment while covered head to toe in training gear hung with magitech weights.

‘Easy as hell, right?’

I could really feel that my Physical Grade had risen to C-.

The increased training intensity was still exhausting, but compared to all the hardship I had endured until now, it was much easier.

I wanted to practice Raging Thunder Sword with this body as soon as possible.

“This concludes morning training!”

“Thank you for your hard work!”

After morning training ended, the cadets left to eat lunch.

Today, Lara Twislope and I were assigned to put away the equipment.

Scurry, scurry.

Gather, gather.

As always when we cleaned up equipment, Lara picked things up below my line of sight due to her small stature.

We had already removed and gathered all the magitech weights in one place.

Each of us carried an armful of equipment as we walked.

“Ron Hazely.”

Lara cautiously spoke to me on the way.

“What?”

“Where were you during the final exam?”

“Hm? Why are you asking that all of a sudden?”

“Just answer me...”

I looked toward Lara. Why did she look so sulky?

‘That expression...’

Didn’t Lara make that face in the original whenever her pride was wounded?

‘Ah, is that why?’

I quickly understood the hidden meaning behind her question.

The only people who survived until the end in Group B’s final exam were Lara and me.

Her pride must have been hurt because she had failed to find me even after unleashing that much firepower.

Lara was very proud of her abilities.

I snickered.

“Are you curious? Want me to tell you?”

Lara lowered her head and squeezed her eyes shut. She looked frustrated.

“Ugh... Y-yeah, tell me...”

It seemed her curiosity had finally overcome her pride.

I could not let this opportunity slip away. I spoke with exaggerated enthusiasm.

“Guh! Lara is this curious, so how could anyone dare refuse to explain? Fine, I’ll answer everything sincerely and thoroughly!”

“...I suddenly don’t want to know anymore. You’re so annoying, Ron Hazely.”

Lara’s eyes turned as lifeless as a dead fish. Half-lidding her eyes, she walked ahead with a cold expression.

After we sat down, we began wiping down and oiling the equipment.

“The clock tower.”

“Hm?”

Lara stopped moving and looked at me when I suddenly spoke.

“There was a place to hide in the clock tower. It was like a magical wall, and it seemed to block aura sense from both directions. Mana could still be detected, but I didn’t use mana after I got inside the clock tower.”

“Uh... really? There was a place like that in the clock tower?”

“You didn’t know? There were hiding places all around the testing grounds.”

“No, I figured that out long ago... I even took down every cadet hiding in places like that, and I checked the clock tower too... So were you hiding there the whole time?”

I nodded.

If I had not reached the hidden place in the clock tower, I probably would have gone, ‘Well, guess I’ll die,’ and offered my neck to Lara’s Fish Swords.

“That’s probably why you couldn’t find me. Though things might’ve been different if we’d been closer.”

“Wait, wait. How did you find a place like that?”

“Hey, did you forget how I’ve survived this long? This time, I first figured out that there were hiding places, then searched the ones that looked best. I thought about running before fighting, that’s all.”

“What are you so proud of?”

Lara complained, then scrunched up her face and tilted her head back.

“Ha, so that’s what happened...”

She let out a quiet sigh.

She seemed frustrated that she had missed me.

‘Oh, wait. Don’t tell me...?’

Come to think of it, Lara had been looking around everywhere during the final exam, searching for someone...

Was she looking for me?

‘Aha. So that was it?’

I gave Lara a meaningful smile. She narrowed her eyes at me bluntly.

“Why are you smiling like that? It’s irritating.”

“Is it because you missed me?”

“No, that’s... Ugh... You didn’t have to ask that so directly...”

Lara glared at me with embarrassment and dissatisfaction.

“Guh! To think Lara was that interested in me...! I’m honored...!”

“W-What nonsense are you talking about!? Why would I be interested in you!?”

Lara’s face turned bright red as she snapped at me.

“So that’s why you spent the whole test searching only for me with your eyes burning... Wow, I don’t know what to do with myself.”

“Stop talking nonsense! I-I’m warning you! This is a warning! Do you understand!?”

When I smiled smugly, Lara huffed.

I smiled at Lara and continued oiling the equipment.

“Ugh, that arrogant Ron Hazely...”

Lara ground her teeth.

This was fun.

* * *

‘The clock tower...’

A day off. A bakery in the Commercial District of the knight school.

Lara Twislope was enjoying strawberry bread and coffee with Elise Lorendia.

Even then, her conversation with Ron continued floating through Lara’s mind.

‘I didn’t notice that place. Was there some intricate concealment magic set up there?’

In the end, Ron had seen through a magical structure that she had missed.

Did that mean he possessed remarkable insight and detection ability when it came to magic? At the very least, he could not have reached that place through luck alone.

Come to think of it, she had vaguely heard that he survived the previous Subjugation Test by figuring out where the golem’s mana core was hidden.

‘Yeah. I have no choice but to acknowledge that ability.’

For some reason, emptiness washed over her like a tide.

‘In the end, I couldn’t catch him...’

The more she thought about it, the more irritation followed. A small groan even escaped her lips.

“Are you thinking about Ron?”

“Hm?”

Elise suddenly asked as though tossing out a casual question.

Lara’s head jerked up, and she stared at Elise with startled eyes.

“Pfft! What kind of reaction was that? You’re making it so obvious.”

“No, it’s... Haa.”

Elise grinned as she stirred the coffee in her teacup with a small spoon.

After considering how to answer, Lara sighed and nodded.

Lara rested her chin on her hand and looked down at her drink with an indifferent expression.

“Well, yeah. I couldn’t catch him during this final exam either... Hm?”

At that moment, Lara felt a strong sense of unease.

Ron Hazely, who had repeatedly sneaked lecherous looks at her legs.

In other words, Ron Hazely, who had at least seen her as an attractive woman.

Ron Hazely, who always showed results beyond her expectations.

Ron Hazely, who had earned the recognition of overwhelming geniuses.

Ron Hazely, who kept making jokes that made her unnecessarily conscious of him.

Ron Hazely, whom her best friend Elise might be romantically interested in.

Ron Hazely, whose looks were not bad.

Ron Hazely, who had been the only one to survive against her while all the other outstanding cadets had fallen.

Ron Hazely, who sometimes irritably came to mind at night.

‘Huh...?’

Only then did Lara realize it.

Like clothes gradually soaked by a drizzle, Ron had quietly come to occupy a large part of her thoughts.

Although she wasn’t romantically interested in Ron, she could not deny that he had deeply seeped into her daily life.

All kinds of emotions churned together inside her.

‘Aaaah... No, this isn’t right...!’

Lara deeply sighed to herself and slowly dropped her head onto the table.

“What’s wrong, Lara?”

“It’s...”

‘Ron Hazely keeps coming to mind.’

She almost let those words slip out in front of the friend who might have feelings for Ron.

Lara raised her head again, rested her chin on her hand, and dejectedly sipped her drink.

“It’s nothing...”

“...Is that so?”

Elise’s turquoise eyes swept over Lara meaningfully.

At some point, Elise’s hand had stopped stirring her coffee.

Footnotes:

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