Classes continued as they always were. I wrote down notes that I didn’t really need, I listened and answered my classmates’ questions, things like that. Aside from several questions directed to Feyt about Ricent, nothing out of the ordinary happened.

When classes were over, I stepped out of my classrooms. As I made my way to the stairs to head up a floor, I took a closer look through the windows to find that the academy had remained largely the same.

Students still wandered around. The cafeteria was always packed. The pop-up market was even up today. If it weren’t for the construction work happening at the arena at the moment, then it really would be just another day in the academy.

It was as if the duel that happened a few days ago never even happened.

But that was only if I looked at things with my eyes. The gossip and talk had shifted dramatically ever since that day.

Though the hype of the duel was dying down by the day, it was still a hot topic I would hear now and then, especially when the person in question walked around.

After that incident, Ricent… wasn’t exactly popular.

No girls were fawning over him; the only ones who really approached him as new friends were commoner students, and it wasn’t like people crowded a place just to get a look at him. But it was safe to say, his name is pretty well known in the academy now.

But I doubted it would stop there.

Whenever I walk around the main building, I’d get snippets of what instructors were talking about as well, and from what I had gathered, the strength of Ricent’s [Piercing Water] wasn’t exactly new; trained mages could cast something as strong, or even stronger, if they wanted to.

But because he was a new student and also someone from outside the capital or major towns, they had started treating him like a prodigy of some sort.

In a way, my goal of teaching him magic was a great success. Not only did I prevent him from shaming himself, but I also elevated him into prodigy status in a single week. Am I a great teacher or what?

But being branded as a prodigy would also mean tougher classes to compensate. I didn’t know how it would translate into a mage class, considering classes were postponed due to the incident, but I was a little worried there since he only knew about that one spell.

But at the very least, he wasn’t going to be an outcast anymore. I mean, I just saw him while passing through a window; he was bringing along some of his newly made friends, all boys, all commoners, to play ball at a training field. They all look like they were having fun.

I don’t know where he got the ball.

I don’t know where he got the permission to play at a training field.

But as long as he has fun making friends—

—Wait, did he even get permission?

—

Royal Knights Academy – Main Building

Western Primary Practice Chamber, 2nd Floor

I steadied my breaths and held stable stances on both sides.

For this self-sparring session, I wanted to try to simulate what a real fight might be like.

The topic of the day was going against aggressive opponents, against someone who really wants to kill you. It was one of the many lessons my parents held at the mansion, and I chose it at random for the spar.

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Normally, one would try to rile up the opponent as much as possible without giving away one’s intention to stir their emotions. Be it by mocking them, playing with them, things like that.

“As long as one is capable of keeping a calm head, a riled-up opponent is easy to predict.” Father once said.

But considering the one before me is literally me, I couldn’t really make myself mad, yeah? No matter how much insult I tried to throw at myself, I would just end up being self-aware or conscious about it instead of being mad.

In fact, the only thing that came to mind when I looked at myselves was how nice I looked, admiring my own self-care results, and how much I didn’t want to hit me in the face.

I tried to picture my opponent as someone else, and it was proving really hard, considering I had control of both bodies and both eyes to fool. But I would give it a try, at the very least.

So, I decided on just going all out, as much as I could, and try to rely on bodily instinct more than logic and then predicting those instincts.

After a quiet moment, Feyt charged forward.

Feyt was going on the offensive this time, and I prepared myself to block my own attack as Carine.

My instinct was already telling me to attack Carine’s arm. But, I was still trying to deduce my next attack through Carine’s eyes, even though I already knew what it was going to be. But after knowing that I knew of my attack plan, my mind immediately came up with another attack plan, which I also immediately knew. After knowing that I knew that I knew about my plan, my body kind of went into a rigid state of confusion.

I stopped short of my charge as Feyt and remained in a strict stance as Carine.

Yeah, trying to simulate a real-ish fight fighting myselves wasn’t going to work. I’d end up coming up with tactics that wouldn’t work in any other scenarios besides self-sparring.

I turned to Leila as Carine, who didn’t waste a second walking our way, carrying a tray with glasses of water.

We finished freshening up, and Leila took a step back, settling her tray down on a nearby table, and began pouring another glass of water.

As I took my stances again, I wondered when I was going to invite the gang over for a spar. I wanted to do it last week, but considering Ricent’s shenanigans, I didn’t even have time to self-spar much, even though I wanted to do it more.

I also had concerns about convincing the others of sparring both of me at the same time and how best to prevent the spread of unfavorable rumors or talks.

But, with Ricent being the main topic of the academy right now, and the fact that I had been distancing myselves for quite a bit, I think just telling them straight up that Feyt is Carine’s bodyguard and that’s it… might work.

After resolving myself to invite the others for a spar sometimes, I decided to give this fight simulation another go for my second set.

I steadied my breaths, held my swords firm, and balanced my stances. Then, Carine stepped forward.

Feyt’s right leg was exposed more than usual; I aimed for that.

Expecting it, Feyt instinctively closed it off, but I immediately undo that to try and predict that without looking into my own mind.

But that slight movement changed Feyt’s balance.

Carine aimed for the left shoulder.

Feyt moved to protect, then undid it because he was technically not supposed to know that immediately.

Carine’s eyes noticed another opening and aimed for that.

Feyt instinctively expected an attack there again.

This was going back and forth and… I actually gritted my teeth in frustration. Carine held her sword firmer than usual, and I decided to charge forward, just to get it over with.

Once again, that back and forth repeated in my mind, no matter how many times I had fought it. I was struggling to even focus.

It was then that knocks came from the door, the final distraction that broke my rhythm. It was during that moment… I lost my footing.

““Oh.””

Carine basically dived head-first, and I charged forward to catch her as Feyt, but I just collided with myselves and dropped onto the floor.

When Carine blinked her eyes open, I found her leaning over Feyt, her hands planted firmly on the ground on either side of his head. Feyt was flat on his back, staring up at her, stunned.

…Again, huh?

Yeah… this had happened before. During a private dance training, I stepped on my other self’s toes and ended up in this exact position, except Feyt was the one on top.

That experience was the only thing keeping me from exploding; The only thing left was embarrassment for fumbling the catch. Or at least, that’s what I hoped the blush creeping up my faces were from.

I couldn’t believe how hard it really was to simulate a real fight between myselves.

If only there was someone else I could spar against…

“Lady… Carine?” a familiar voice echoed.

Both of my bodies froze.

Slowly, I turned both of my heads.

Eveliana.

Villius.

Mirabelle.

Lionne.

All four were standing there. All four were staring at me.

Okay…

This is fine…

I have a solution for this…

…

..

.

Can someone kill me?

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