Dragon Chain Ori : Ch 5 Part 3

Early Release!!!!

Chapter 5 Part 3

Translator : PolterGlast

Proofreader : John4891

Shortly before Nozomu and Mars had a mock battle, the 1st class was having their lesson at another training ground.

The contents were combat training in the same mock battle format as Nozomu and Mars.

However, the atmosphere of the 1st class students, who gathered at the training ground, was different from that of the 10th class, and the class was shrouded in a tense atmosphere.

 

In Solminati Academy, which was a meritocracy, it was never easy to constantly achieve high grades.

If they weren't careful, their rivals would kick them down. In addition, the treatment of students who had fallen from the upper class to the lower classes was by no means gentle.

They were humiliated by former classmates and treated as a tumor in their new lower classes.

Around the first year, some students shined in the upper class, but after that, they were unable to keep up and they fell to the lower class. Many of them dropped out of school because of that.

Lastly, competition tended to be worse in higher grades.

In such a tense atmosphere, Lisa Hounds stared at the corner of the training ground.

 

"..."

"Lisa? What's wrong?"

"Ken?"

 

Lisa turned around in response to that voice, and there was her childhood friend, Ken Notis, from the same class.

He looked in the direction Lisa was staring with a suspicious expression. There, a girl with long black hair and a girl with brown hair fluttering down to her shoulders chatted as they prepared for the lesson.

 

"Ah, Irisdina-san? So are you curious about your rivals?"

 

Lisa and Irisdina were almost evenly matched in combat training and were rivals who had collided countless times during combat training classes, mock battles, and exams.

Ken wondered if Lisa was curious about her rival, but Ken thought Lisa wasn't just curious about that.

 

"... Or are you curious about Nozomu?"

"!?"

 

The moment she heard Ken mutter those words, her face looked surprised for a moment, but soon she harbored a flame of anger in her eyes, bit her lips, and distorted her face.

 

"It's okay. I'm here. You're not alone."

 

Ken whispered so in Lisa's ear, pulled her to his chest, and hugged her shoulders.

 

"..."

 

Lisa just silently left herself to Ken, but her expression was still stiff.

A voice that was neither Ken nor Lisa could be heard from behind.

 

"Oh. Both of you are so hot ~"

 

When Lisa and Ken looked back to the source of the voice, a girl sighed with her hands raised as if she was amazed.

A girl with reddish-brown eyes whose hair, which was the same colour as her eyes, was cut roughly to the shoulders stood there.

Even though her facial features were well-arranged, her facial expressions and demeanor did not look feminine.

 

"Ca-Camilla!"

"Umm~ Lisa. It's good to see you two flirting, but please pick another place. Everyone is watching."

"!?"

 

A girl named Camilla told them to quit it. When Lisa realized where and what she was doing, she hurriedly moved away from Ken.

 

"So why did you look at the black-haired princess? Are you curious about something? ... Or is it about that guy ..."

 

Camilla glanced at Irisdina, and she struck a thinking pose, trying to figure out what Lisa was curious about; however, she seemed to have realized something with a bitter expression.

 

"Good grief! He's really a helpless guy! So this time he is going to touch Irisdina! How much does he think Lisa was hurt at that time?"

 

She was upset and angry.

She was a girl who was in the same class as Lisa since the first year and could be called Lisa's best friend.

Since she belonged to the first year, she was also an excellent student. When Nozomu and Lisa were lovers, she casually chatted with Nozomu and also supported Lisa.

But when rumors of Nozomu spread, she was the first to go to Lisa to hear from her, and when she heard about Nozomu's betrayal, she got angry and beat Nozomu up.

Since then, she started hating Nozomu just like Lisa did.

 

"Indeed. Well, she is a wise girl, so she is only losing her way for a moment. I'm sure she will get sick of Nozomu sooner or later."

 

Ken harshly criticized Nozomu, but Camilla tilted her head at his words.

 

"It's rare for you to be so hostile towards him. Usually, you're partly covering for him." 

 

As Camilla said, until now, when the same topic came up, Ken made several statements that seemed to cover Nozomu up, but he ended up staying on Lisa's side.

This was because Ken wanted to make Nozomu think that he was on his side.

Ken made Nozomu and Lisa break up, and then acted as an ally in front of Nozomu to control his actions. That was why, even if he remained on Lisa's side, he had to take some measures to cover Nozomu up so as not to cause a contradiction.

However, the current Ken, who thought that Nozomu had been completely crushed, felt that it was no longer necessary, so his words and actions that once covered for Nozomu had changed. Like those around him, Ken began to blame Nozomu heavily.

However, his sudden change in attitude left a feeling of discomfort in the surroundings.

But he had already prepared something for it, and that was...

 

"You see, the other day in a store ... Was it Ushitotei? When I entered that store with Lisa, we happened to meet Nozomu, but at that time, I heard that he asked Lisa, ‘Why did I get dumped?’."

"... What's that! How crazy is that guy!!" 

 

When she heard Ken's words, she remembered Lisa's appearance, her best friend, in the summer of the first year. She crouched down and held her knees in her room believing that she was betrayed by Nozomu.

Camilla didn't understand why and was trying to talk to her, but Lisa was looking down all the time as if she couldn't see her.

In the end, Lisa didn't react until Ken, who came to see Lisa's condition, talked to her

When Ken spoke to Lisa, she finally raised her face, wondering if her childhood friend's words had arrived.

Lisa didn't know why Camilla and Ken were there. She had a shocked look on her face, but soon, large tears began to spill over her eyes, and she began to sob.

And when her tears finally overflowed, she began to cry loudly as if the dam had broken.

She kept crying for about an hour, but when she finally calmed down, the words that came from her mouth made Camilla angrier than ever.

 

"I was really shocked when I heard about what he did. Until now, I thought Nozomu was just a little evil, but now, I can't take it anymore."

 

Since Nozomu pressed Lisa for an answer in Ushitotei, Ken could use that as an excuse to blame Nozomu.

To Nozomu, it was an action he took to try facing the issue at hand; however, to people who believed in the rumors, they would think that it was the action of the pot calling the kettle black.

 

"......" 

 

As Camilla and Ken talked about what happened at Ushitotei, Lisa turned her eyes to Irisdina again.

Irisdina was maintaining her rapier, which was her specialized weapon, but perhaps noticing Lisa's gaze, Irisdina turned her face towards Lisa.

 

“…………….”

“…………….”

 

Both of their eyes met.

Lisa felt the inside of her heart grow noisy and her anger rise, and she suddenly turned her back around.

However, even after she turned her gaze away, the noise inside her heart didn’t disappear.

 

====================================== 

 

 

"Ai, what are you going to do today?"

 

Tima was talking to Irisdina, who was by her side. Irisdina was maintaining her rapier, but she kept quietly tending to it and didn't respond to her question.

However, at first glance, it seemed that she was only doing preparatory work; however, Tima, who had been her close friend since the first year, noticed that her consciousness was not on the preparatory work, but on something else. When Irisdina's line of sight shifted in a different direction ...

 

"..."

"... Ai"

"Ah, sorry, Tima. What is it?"

 

Irisdina stopped her work and turned her gaze toward Tima, but Tima's expression wasn’t good because she was worried about her best friend.

 

"Hey, Ai. As I thought, you are curious about Lisa and her friends, right?"

"…… Um~m, well"

 

It was Lisa Hounds who Irisdina was curious about.

She was almost sure of what happened between Nozomu, Lisa, and Ken, but she still couldn't tell anyone about it.

However, she wanted to talk to Lisa one more time.

She could be the key to the relationship between the three of them.

Lisa was the woman he loved. Maybe he still loved her even now. With that in mind, Irisdina felt a tight feeling in the depths of her chest.

 

"…… What do you want to do?"

"To be honest, I want to talk to her again, and she seems curious about us too."

"Eh?"

 

In response to her words, Tima looked beyond Irisdina's line of sight. She found Lisa staring back towards her.

They couldn’t make out Lisa's expression since she was either too far away or wasn’t showing it. They had no idea what she was thinking, not because she was far away, but because her face was expressionless.

It reminded them of Nozomu's rumors that spread to the school.

Irisdina had already realized that the rumors weren't true, and she somehow wanted to help him.

For her, Nozomu was a benefactor who saved her sister's life, and she thought he was an irreplaceable person.

 

Because of that, she couldn't stand seeing him being accused in the school, and she wanted to do something about it; however, his reputation, which had taken root in the last two years, couldn't be resolved by just her alone.

She thought she had to know more about these three childhood friends, Nozomu, Lisa, and Ken, in order to get rid of the rumors, but it wouldn’t be easy.

At first, she wanted to ask Nozomu directly, so she talked to everyone, including Mars, in Ushitotei, but Tima told her that she shouldn't be impatient at that time.

 

It may have been true.

She understood that it was best to wait for Nozomu to speak.

However, the feeling of impatience in her heart didn’t disappear, and it only increased day by day. What's more, she speculated on her own about what happened between Nozomu and his childhood friends, and she also began to feel there was a wall between her and Nozomu recently.

 

It was clear that he had done something reckless recently, but he didn’t tell Irisdina and the others what had happened.

He forcibly shut himself in the depths of his own heart and showed them his fake smile.

The fake smile was similar to the smile Irisdina had seen so often.

People often covered their true intentions with mask-like smiles and approached her with corrupt hearts. It was very similar to the pests clinging to the Francilt Family, trying to devour their sweet nectar.

Of course, she knew that Nozomu had different feelings in his heart compared to those pest, but the fake smile Nozomu showed her made her speculate things and feel frustrated. This further fueled her own impatience.

 

She wanted him to talk. But he didn't talk.

She wanted him to tell her. But he didn't tell.

She wanted to know more about him.

She wanted him to laugh with his real smile. Not a fake one.

Because Irisdina was too frustrated, she said something that she never would’ve thought of in normal situations. 

 

"... Then, let me take advantage of this lesson for a moment."

 

Taking Lisa's gaze head-on, Irisdina declared so to herself.

 

================================== 

 

 

When the lesson started, Irisdina was the first to nominate her opponent for the mock battle, which was Lisa.

Basically, like the other classes, the 1st class was now having group battles.

However, since a mere five students, who possessed outstanding abilities, belonged to A rank while the rest of the students in the class were B rank, A-ranked students were added to each group, and then the mock battles were held.

However, this time, Irisdina suddenly proposed a one-on-one mock battle with Lisa.

At first, her teacher, Jihad, had suspicions, but he accepted her proposal because she was allowed to take some discretion in training an A-rank student.

 

“……………….”

“……………….”

 

A black-haired and red-haired girl faced each other with their own specialized weapons in the center of the training ground. Irisdina, with her stance, held her rapier and stuck the tip out, while Lisa held a saber in her right hand and a dagger in her left hand, putting herself on guard by lowering her stance.

Classmates gathered around them in a circle, watching the battle that was about to begin, and there was a feeling of tension in the training ground.

The two of them stared at each other in a straight line.

Both of their eyes reflected the respective opponent they were about to fight, but the same boy was projected beyond each other's eyes.

 

"Then ... Begin!"

 

Irisdina moved with Jihad’s signal to start.

The moment she swung her rapier, her [Immediate Deployment] ability activated, and at that moment, five black magic bullets were created and flew towards Lisa.

 

"Fu~!"

 

Lisa activated the magic she was already chanting in advance. An invisible barrier appeared in front of her and it stopped Irisdina's magic bullet.

While watching the black magic bullets scatter with a bursting sound, Lisa continued to cast her spell.

Magical power wrapped around her body and drastically increased her physical strength.

Lisa rushed out with her enhanced physical abilities while protecting her own body with her magic barrier and closed the gap with Irisdina at once.

 

Lisa's casting speed clearly wasn’t normal. It was simply twice as fast as Irisdina’s when it came to strengthening her body.

Irisdina gave up intercepting with her magic bullet and immediately deployed the same magic barrier as Lisa and stopped Lisa's attack with it.

The two magical barriers collided, and crackling sounds resounded as their magical powers collided against each other. Eventually, their barrier was shattered with a crashing sound, and Lisa launched the saber in her right hand towards Irisdina.

Irisdina immediately activated her body strengthening magic. She parried Lisa's saber with her rapier.

 

As Lisa rushed over, her saber, which was swung with her overwhelming physical strengthening, should’ve been blown away if it was properly deflected by Irisdina, but that wasn't the case.

Actually, her previous rush was made possible because Lisa's ability was activated.

 

Ability [Niveei Witch]

It was the ability to interfere with any magic and double its effectiveness.

Lisa doubled the effectiveness of her own body strengthening magic with this ability.

 

Lisa narrowed her distance with Irisdina at once and tried to slash Irisdina again.

However, Irisdina's wasn’t any incompetent either. Aiming at the moment Lisa drew her saber, Irisdina used the lightness of her rapier to shoot a thrust at Lisa's shoulder.

However, Lisa was also a student who was A rank just like Irisdina. She calmly wielded her dagger, parrying Irisdina's thrusts, and she, in turn, slashed at Irisdina's torso with her saber.

 

They rushed and slashed at each other as they were.

A number of sword flashes gleamed in a few seconds, and high-pitched metal clashing sounds were heard.

They had crossed swords for a while, but suddenly Irisdina kicked the ground and retreated.

The next moment, Lisa's saber was mowing down without stopping.

The saber, which mowed down, cut through the air, and the surroundings were swept away.

 

[Niveei Witch] was activated again.

Once again, Lisa tried to shorten their widening distance with her rush, whose power was doubled by her body strengthening magic.

 

Irisdina couldn't easily use the same trick twice. She immediately activated an earth-type magic [Sajō no Jōheki] (Castle Wall built on Sand).

The ground between Lisa and Irisdina rose, and a large sand wall appeared.

This spell was a spell that temporarily created a strong wall using the surrounding sand. The wall created was durable enough, but they didn’t last very long and the only way to maintain it was to continuously send in magical power. This magic was named [Castle Wall built on Sand] because this magic would return to sand once the magic power ran out.

 

Irisdina's goal was to gain time.

Lisa's [Niveei Witch] ability doubled the effect of any magic, but after activating the ability, the user wouldn’t be able to activate the ability for some time, and that time would be proportional to the amount of time the ability was previously used.

In other words, the more Lisa used her abilities, the less favorable the future developments would be for her.

 

No matter how hard she tried, she couldn't compete with Irisdina, who had [Immediate Deployment]. Lisa's characteristic was to break through using the power of [Niveei Witch], and that was as a means to counter Irisdina.

However, Lisa also knew Irisdina's goal. That was why she didn't use it for a long time.

 

Lisa pulled her right hand and sent magical power to the saber. The saber's blade burned bright red, and the next moment, the burning flame was concentrated on the blade.

What she did was magic injection Rather than simply strengthening her specialized weapon with magical power or giving it specific attributes, she added her own offensive magic to her specialized weapon.

The magic she added was an attack spell called [Explosion Vortex]. As the name suggested, it was an attack spell in which explosively scattered flames blew away the surrounding objects and burned them out.

 

"Fu ~~"

 

Lisa gathered the burning flame onto the saber's blade while exhaling. After seeing the flames settle on the blade, she rushed towards the wall in front of her.

She used her enhanced power, which was drastically strengthened by the [Niveei Witch], and accelerated in an instant, she slammed the bright red sword against the wall.

Flames danced through the air and in the next moment, with a thunderous sound, a large hole opened in the wall.

Lisa ran through the hole and rushed towards Irisdina at once.

Instead of receiving her attack, this time, Irisdina also rushed in the same way as Lisa.

 

"!!"

 

Lisa didn't expect Irisdina to rush towards her, who was still activating [Niveei Witch]; however, Lisa shot the saber in her right hand towards Irisdina.

Irisdina also applied enhancement magic to her rapier and took Lisa's slash head-on.

 

"Kuh~!!"

"Wha!?"

 

An anguished voice escaped from Irisdina's mouth. She was pushed slightly, but she managed to stand her ground.

Lisa also made a surprised voice since she didn't think Irisdina could take her current slash head-on.

The reason why Iridina was able to stop Lisa's slash was due to repeated physical strengthening using [Immediate Deployment].

Before Lisa broke the sand wall, Irisdina cast body strengthening magic on herself several times with [Immediate Deployment], and she temporarily gained the power to stop Lisa's slash with [Niveei Witch] activated.

However, the control of multiple magics required tremendous concentration, mental strength, and control power. Even for Irisdina, it was a tough act to pull off. Unlike Lisa, who only needed to activate [Niveei Witch], Irisdina was pushed by Lisa, albeit slightly because of intense exhaustion.

 

(But, even so, I'm still in a condition where I can face and state my circumstances to Lisa!)

 

Irisdina had doubts about what Lisa was implying the last time they spoke.

For that reason, she was aiming for an opportunity to talk to Lisa in a mock battle. She thought Lisa would escape even if she spoke to her properly, and she thought Ken would get in the way.

 

"Lisa, do you think Nozomu is really having an affair?"

"W-What?"

 

Lisa's face turned upset. She probably didn't expect to be asked of such a thing in such a place.

 

"You should have known. How hard he strives to improve." 

 

Lisa had spent a longer time with Nozomu than Irisdina and the others. When Irisdina thought about it, her chest hurt, but she continued to speak.

 

"I've spent a little time with him. It's been a short time compared to you, and I don't fully understand him either."

 

Irisdina continued to speak, but Lisa lowered her head down and the expression on her face was nowhere to be seen.

 

"But he's not the kind of person you're thinking about right now! I can assure you!"

 

Despite being with him for a short time, Irisdina expressed her impression of him to Lisa. Since she didn't know what to say to Lisa, she had no choice but to tell her what she really felt.

 

"... Are you really ......"

"... Then why didn't he say anything to me?"

"...... Eh?"

 

Irisdina tried to continue speaking, but Lisa, who was looking down, opened her mouth to block out the words.

 

"There's no proof that he betrayed me ... But why? Why didn't he say anything up until now? When I thought I was betrayed and shut myself up in my room, only Camilla and Ken were there for me. He didn't even come ..."

 

At that time, Nozomu continued to train day and night against his activated Ability Suppression.

He repeated self-training in the suburbs of the city. He had Ken go out with him and repeated the mock battles. He fell asleep, collapsing on the spot.

Since the first year, Nozomu and Lisa had been divided into different classes due to differences in their abilities, and Nozomu spent his days training without knowing what happened to Lisa.

When he was training in the suburbs, he asked Ken why Lisa didn't come to school, but Ken insisted that Lisa was sick and kept Nozomu away from Lisa.

However, Lisa didn't know that.

For her, Nozomu was a bastard who had never even made an excuse or explanation while betraying her. No matter how much Ken continued to pull the strings, Nozomu was also a part of the problem since he kept running away instead of facing Lisa. 

 

"Why are you bringing that up now ... Don't screw with me!!!"

 

Lisa's magical power erupred from her body at once. She pushed back Irisdina at once, and Irisdina's rapier was blown away as it was.

 

"Kuh~ !!"

"Aaaaaaa!!"

 

Lisa turned the saber around and slashed it at Irisdina.

However, Irisdina made a judgment as quickly as Lisa. She conjured a magic bullet with [Immediate Deployment] and fired it at Lisa from close range.

The swung saber was sucked into Irisdina's abdomen and blew her away.

Lisa also had no way of preventing the magic bullet that was fired in front of her, and she was blown away in the opposite direction.

 

"Gah~!!!"

"Guuuu!!" 

 

Naturally, the weapons they used were for training. However, Lisa's slash, which was strengthened by [Niveei Witch], was enough to make Irisdina lose consciousness.

Irisdina felt her self-consciousness drift away. She regretted that she couldn't do anything for her benefactor. Just before she lost consciousness, Lisa, who was lying on the ground like herself, came to her sight.

While looking at Lisa who was on the verge of tears in her distorted field of view, she felt something hot rolling down her cheeks.