The days passed by with everyone training themselves. Erina felt Kai's gradually degrading mental state but there was little she could do. Sleeping in the same room as him, Amelia and Erina had long since found out that he had nightmares and that he faked sleeping when with them.

When they confronted him about it, he skillfully avoided them by changing the topic. They didn't want to force Kai but if it continued then they feared that he would be in this state for awhile.

During this period of time, Kai's treatment of Yoko improved even more and it was evident that the nightmares were related to her but she was also adamant about keeping silent having found out why Kai treated her that way.

Nevertheless, Kai's mental state was still enough for daily life.

Today, they weren't at the practice field and instead, they were all meeting in the town square.

"We're going to join a swordsmanship tournament, the Sword of the King tournament. The one who wins in this tournament is bestowed the title of Strongest Sword."

After Kai's sudden announcement, the ones who were chosen to participate, Yoko, Kei, Date, Arata, and Iori looked at one another not disguising the confusion in their eyes.

"Why?"

Yoko was the one who asked first.

"I'm certain that the blind swordsman will participate. We're going to enter the tournament wearing a disguise and using an alias. During this tournament, you will all pave the way for me and him to fight in the end and I'll start the plan to defeat him."

Once again, they were all confused.

"Pave the way for you? Wouldn't just you and him be enough to wipe out everyone?"

Yoko asked once more.

"It's a matter of time. If you all enter, then the time will be cut down by at least half, you all have the ability to cut down your opponents in an instant after all."

Kai handed papers to the participants but just as he finished, Erina walked up to him.

"I want to join too."

"...But there's no need for you to."

"Yoko is joining but she uses daggers, Arata uses a spear yet you're telling me you won't let me, who can use a rapier to fight?"

Arata and Yoko would be forced to use swords during the tournament and a rapier although uncommon, is a sword used for battle as well.

"...Alright, fine."

Kai tapped his pendant and handed Erina one more paper indicating her participation. All they had to do was write their names, sign, and then pass it to the tournament staff.

After receiving the papers again, Kai headed out to pass it to the tournament staff while the rest of them separated.

"So that's your plan."

"It's the only choice."

Amelia and Erina were talking to each other by the fountain.

"But for you to beat Kai in swordsmanship, we both know that that's impossible. And, there's also the fight with the blind swordsman, you can't possibly contend with that."

Erina bit her lip and stayed silent.

"...This is just a possibility but would Kai accept a condition other than to defeat him? What if the condition was to break his mask or something?"

Amelia said while pondering seriously.

"Then what if I bet that I won't dig in any deeper, there should be a good chance he'd accept right?"

Erina gave her suggestion.

"That should be enough, he's been trying everything he can to stop us from figuring it out after all. Before that tournament starts, I'll have to engrave into you the martial arts that Kai taught me."

Erina stared at her with wide eyes in response.

"What?"

Amelia asked with a raised brow.

"You know martial arts?"

Erina asked with a bit of doubt.

"Wha-? You're doubting me?"

Amelia asked evidently surprised. After all, she was quite proud with her physical abilities.

"Well, it's just that I've never seen you even go into close combat. Against Fate, I saw you wield a sword made of blood once but that's it, you didn't even get to use it. And, what use are martial arts in a sword tournament?"

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Perhaps kicking the opponent or using the free hand to throw a punch was fine but discarding the sword and going for martial arts is obviously prohibited.

"I'll teach you something that Kai taught me. It's normally impossible to do because you'd have to hold a sword in one hand and use physical techniques with the other hand, no ordinary person can do it. But you can do it, you're using a rapier which is a very light weapon, I'll teach you some palm techniques. Don't use them against anyone except Kai though, we don't want to reveal your trump card."

Amelia gave her an explanation and began to think of a place where they could fight.

"Ah, the illusion world. Kai may have reins over it but I also hold authority there. I'll just borrow it from him now. Go back to the inn."

Just as Erina was about to nod, about five men surrounded them.

"Yo ladies, want to come with us?"

"Damn these two are hot."

"Hehehe... Follow us and we'll show you two a good time, what do you say?"

Although the two of them had transformed their faces, they were still very beautiful. Their bodies couldn't be hidden and so it was incredibly alluring. There was one thing preventing others from hitting on them though, that was the aura that surrounded them. It was evident that they weren't normal people and so as long as one wasn't an idiot, they wouldn't approach.

And now there were five of these idiots at once.

In fact, Erina stared at them speechless for a second. She was intentionally releasing some of her aura but there were still people who dared to get close. It was one thing if they were going to ask for directions or something but the men in front of her were flirting with them.

"I'm sorry but we're both taken. Our husband is quite the jealous man and if he were to see you, I'd doubt you'd see the light of day."

Hearing her, three of them clicked their tongues.

"They actually have one man as their husband? What a lucky bastard."

"Must be some rich man."

"Hehehe. We'll satisfy you better than that man though."

They didn't give up even after Amelia announced that she and Erina were already married. In fact, they became even more aggressive with their advances.

After hearing them, Amelia simply ignored them and Erina did the same. One of the men eventually became impatient and tried grabbing Erina's arm but just as he was about to touch her, a hand stopped him by grabbing his shoulder.

"Boss!"

A man appeared wearing a uniform with an insignia etched on the left part of the chest.

"I'll take it from here."

The man who the five called boss approached Erina and Amelia with a rose in hand..

"You two beauties over there, would you give me the pleasure of joining me for dinner?"

Erina scoffed at the man's gesture of bowing with a rose.

"Do you think we'd agree to go to dinner with a man who doesn't even introduce himself?"

The man quickly stood up, hid the rose by putting the hand behind him and placing his free hand on his chest.

"My apologies, my name is William Rede, heir apparent of the Rede noble family. I am also the vice president of the student council of Aubrey Academy."

At first, Erina already disregarded the man who boasted about his family but her eyes sharpened after he said Aubrey Academy. Even over at Soaring Eagle, it was widely-known as the world's best academy. Most S-class in this continent were produced from the school and to date, it held most of the authority in this continent.

"And what does the vice president of Aubrey Academy want with us?"

Erina intentionally called him the vice president instead of the heir. She could antagonize the noble's house but not the Aubrey Academy. It was good that she hadn't beaten up those thugs right then and there because the man in front of them could've framed them easily.

"I just want to know if you're interested in joining the academy, you're both below twenty, am I right? We can discuss the matter over dinner."

Erina smiled at William's invitation. Just as the latter thought that Erina would agree, her cold voice made the smile on his face freeze.

"I refuse."

Even the men behind William were stunned. This was Aubrey Academy! You'd be hard-pressed to find anyone who didn't want to join. Not to mention dinner, even if William directly asked a random bystander for their bodies for enrolling in the academy, they would agree with little to no hesitation. This was how big the influence Aubrey Academy had.

"May I ask why...?"

William asked, refusing to believe that the two in front of her had just refused him. Well, one of them had but it was obvious that Amelia shared Erina's opinion.

"Although joining the academy sounds tempting, I already have a husband and I'm satisfied with him. To have dinner with another man with no relations to me would be unfaithful."

It wasn't uncommon for people to marry at fifteen so nobody questioned her martial status. After all, engagements were commonplace in this world and promising to marry at adulthood was a standard.

Hearing her reply which didn't offend the academy but instead attacked him, his brows furrowed. He turned to look at Amelia to realize that she was looking at him in unconcealed disdain.

"...It appears that you two are adamant about this. Alright, I shall retreat for now but the offer will still be available for you two, just come and find me and we can discuss it during the night."

He placed emphasis on the words 'during the night', it was ambiguous which could mean that they could talk over dinner or in bed. If either of them pointed it out, he could accuse them of slander and take them away. Luckily, neither of them were gullible enough to fall for that sort of provocation.

After all, insulting a noble was a crime. Even if Erina revealed her true identity here, it would do little because they were far from home.

While William was walking away, the smile on his face disappeared.

"Find out who their husband is and eliminate him. I want those two warming my bed within three days."

He whispered to the five surrounding him.

"Yes!"

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The Sword of the King tournament would be held in the grandest arena in the capital. Tournament staff were scattered around the kingdom for registrations but the participants had to travel to the capital for the actual event. Of course, not all the participants are given the chance to participate.

Preliminaries are held in the towns where registrations are allowed and a set number of participants are taken from each town to the capital.

The actual tournament was about a month away but preliminaries would be held over several days but finished within the week. Participants mostly arrived at the capital 2 weeks prior to the actual event so there was just enough time. Registration had actually began quite awhile ago but Kai hadn't heard about it because he was busy with the plan.

When they arrived in this continent, they left the port town after a day and continued traveling to one of the major towns in the kingdom. It was the town second only to the capital in size, it even had a branch of Aubrey Academy which only had about five sub-branches and one main branch in total.

The preliminaries were needless to say, a walk in the park to everyone. Even if Yoko and Arata weren't used to swords, it wasn't like they hadn't touched it before. They had more than enough training to pass through the preliminaries without a hitch.

There was only one wrong thing that happened during this week, it was that Kai became the target of an assassination. The assassins already failed thrice but they hadn't given up at all. In fact, more and more assassins kept coming after Kai.

Erina and Amelia knew the reason and told him as well but no matter how many assassins they sent, it was all useless. After all, Kai was an S-class.