Fii’s mocking turned their faces bright red.
“Hmph! I act modestly to give you face, and look at you getting ahead of yourself!”
“Yeah! Look at this scrawny thing.”
“Hmph.”
Fii had no recollection of him ever acting modestly, but given that these boys were broken track records, she had concluded that it was stupid to spend any more time on them.
She turned away.
“Can you get out of my way already? Talking here is a waste of time.”
Fii had no intention of spending any longer on them, but because their bodies were in the way, she was finding it hard to leave.
Although the two glared at her, they didn’t have the nerve to actually attack.
It was at that time that a large shadow appeared behind them.
“The h.e.l.l are you two doing?”
A muscular body unthinkable for a boy, and a scary face like a gorilla. It was Gorms.
The moment they caught sight of him, the expressions of the duo turned joyful.
“Gorms-san! This midget is acting cheeky even though he lost to you in the first round. He’s getting all ahead of himself because he entered the 18th!”
“That’s right! Please teach him his place!”
Despite saying all that, in the end they were too afraid to act themselves, and pathetically borrowed somebody else’s strength. Fii was astounded that they made it through the entrance exams.
But as expected, with Gorms here she wouldn’t be able to win.
She had planned on giving her best if the argument with the boys had turned into a scuffle, but she already knew how strong Gorms was.
Even with a wooden sword in hand, Fii had been unable to beat him. Now that they were barehanded, she had absolutely no chance of victory.
Not only that, the other two would be able to surround her.
Well, she was still going to struggle as best she could though.
(Is he going to attack?)
Or so she was wondering as she looked straight up, when she found Gorms looking right at her as well.
Gorms went for the collars. Of the two boys, that is.
“Why the f.u.c.k do I have to listen to you? f.u.c.k off.”
Glared at by his scary face, the two boys ran away in tears.
Fii stared at him blankly.
Just like when they first met, Gorms gave another mocking smirk.
“Honestly, you find their type everywhere, huh. Making fun of you because you’re small even though they don’t know the first thing about you.”
“You know, that sounds a little familiar…”
Seeing Gorms talk to her so familiarly, Fii raised her eyebrows, and narrowed her eyes into an astounded stare.
“Don’t be silly. I made fun of you because I was strong. It wasn’t because you were tiny.”
“I see. Well you certainly are.”
That wasn’t something she could deny.
Because of various coincidences, she had managed to put up a long fight, but it wouldn’t have been strange had he taken her down right at the beginning. And even with luck on her side, and even after she had given her all, in the end she couldn’t win against him.
“Hahhahha! So you admit it too. I’m f.u.c.ken strong. It’s natural that I was the overall champion,” laughed Gorms with his arms crossed, with the cold compress still on his forehead.
Under the compress was the bruise that Fii had given him with all her might.
“But the hardest fight I had was the first match with you, yanno. You were slippery, and annoying, stubborn and cowardly too. Honestly, it was the worst.”
From his words, Fii could tell that he had acknowledged her.
“I see. So I was the one that gave you the hardest fight.”
“That’s how it is. Don’t pay any attention to those idiots.”
“Mn. Ehehe,” she laughed happily.
Gorms sat down on the chair next to hers. His expression turned serious.
“I’m sorry for telling you to go home. You were desperately giving your all. And you had b.a.l.l.s too.”
“Nah, don’t worry about it. I’m sorry for calling you a gorilla too.”
“I’m begging you, don’t make me remember that…”
Having the gorilla thing brought up again, Gorms looked seriously depressed now.
Fii really did feel guilty, so seeing that, she tried to cheer him up telling him that she was just getting him back, and that he didn’t really look like one.
(And even if you do look like a gorilla, you’re a very cool gorilla) she thought in her heart.
After his expression returned to normal, Gorms turned to Fii with a clenched fist.
“Well, next time things won’t go your way, so prepare yourself. This time I’ll really send you flying in a hit.”
“Then I’d better think of a new tactic to confuse you the next time as well.”
“Put some of that effort into your sword first, dammit…” muttered a pale Gorms.
He couldn’t feel even a little chivalry from her reply.
“By the way, if you claimed the overall victory, does that mean that you’re the strongest out of all the apprentice knights?”
Having completely put Gorms into her ‘friends’ category, Fii’s tone was without reserve.
“Obviously! Or so I wanna say, but we’re actually divided into blocks, so it’s hard to say. A total of 11 other guys made it in their own blocks. Well, I’m probably still the strongest though.”
“I see~ So even you’re still just the top 12 huhh.”
“OI!”
Gorms glared at Fii for so easily demoting him in her eyes.
“Ahaha, looks like the two of us are going to have to work hard, Gorms.”
“Yeah. You’re right.”
Fii and Gorms smiled at each other.
By the by, the reason this chapter came a little later is because I was waiting for a response from NEET-sensei. I wasn’t quite sure about the line,
“Gorms gave another mocking smirk.”
but surprisingly, the reply came with not only a detailed explanation, but a picture as well.
Let us all bask in the glory of not only Sensei’s writing skills, but ill.u.s.trative wonders as well.
Since this is a rare-ish case of the author actually giving permission, if you have anything you want to say, feel free to let me know, and I’ll pa.s.s the message along. I probably won’t be able to translate it though. Alternatively, you can register an account at syosetu and message NEET-Sensei directly.