Refinement

Duke Billian was one of the absolute powerhouses in the original game.

Physical reinforcement that fused offense and defense, bottomless stamina, and... muscles. Pure, unadulterated muscle. There wasn't a single wasted movement in his repertoire.

But that was endgame talk.

At this stage of the story, Duke was still a work in progress. His opponent, Isaac Eld, was already the "completed" article. Isaac was a dual-wielder who fought by imbuing his blades with fire and water magic.

Now, this gets into the weeds of Noblesse Oblige’s specific stat mechanics, but magic swords and normal swords functioned very differently when it came to defense. I usually imbued my own blade with a hint of Dark and Light properties, which forced my opponents to divert their mana toward magic resistance.

Think of resistance like a suit of armor; if you get cut where the plating is thin, it's going to hurt a lot more.

The problem was that trying to cover your entire body in a magic barrier was horribly inefficient. Finding that sweet spot was incredibly difficult. In the game, it was easy to track—Dark Resistance: 20, Light Resistance: 20—but when you were actually standing in the arena, it was a completely different story.

This was exactly why an opponent with multiple attributes was so terrifying, and vice versa. There was no doubt that Duke was in for a rough time.

Furthermore, Duke had significantly less mana than the average student. To compensate, he basically ignored spellcasting entirely in favor of dumping everything into physical reinforcement. His compatibility with Isaac was atrocious, but Duke must have been cooking up a counter-strategy, because he was currently fighting with a personal weapon I’d never seen before.

"Hah! What’s the matter?! You’re not all that, are you?! Is this really the best the Durant Swordsmanship has to offer?!"

"Damn you, you barbarian!"

No matter how many times Isaac drove his swords forward, Duke swatted them away with his fists. The sound of clashing metal rang through the arena. It was no wonder Isaac looked like he'd seen a ghost—Duke was wearing a pair of heavy brass knuckles.

The guy had serious guts. Normally, you didn't just punch a sword unless you were looking to lose your fingers or your entire arm. But Duke didn't flinch. He never averted his eyes from an attack. He waded right through Isaac’s terrifying strikes and caught them with his knuckles.

Isaac was steadily accumulating damage and hemorrhaging mana. His stamina was clearly hitting a wall.

"You just keep charging in like a damn goblin!"

"Oh, I like that! That’s a compliment in my book!"

Unable to handle Duke’s relentless pressure, Isaac finally cast a spell to blast himself backward and create some distance. It was a desperate, messy tactic—hardly fitting for a student of the prestigious, sword-focused Duran School.

But I suppose he was desperate to win. The scary thing about these Duran guys was that even though they practiced nothing but swordsmanship, their understanding of magic was incredibly high. To fight specifically against magic, you had to study it even more intensely than a mage did.

They must have spent every waking hour vomiting blood during their training.

"You melee-obsessed freak! This is the end! [Icefire]—!"

Isaac threw his pride away and unleashed a long-range spell. Duke was historically weak at range.

Well... previously weak.

"The 'me' from a few weeks ago might have been in trouble there."

After Duke evaded the magic, he pulled his right fist back. In the past, he used his Creation Magic to manifest a bow, but this was different. He was firing his fists using magic.

Wait... don't tell me he developed his own Original Creation Magic too?

Isaac hurriedly crossed his twin swords to defend, but it was a decoy. Duke used [Silent Step] to instantly close the distance. His projectile magic was actually quite weak; if it were the usual Isaac, he would have realized it immediately. But Duke’s sheer presence was so overwhelming that the boy hadn't even noticed the trick.

Duke stepped deep into his opponent's guard.

"Sorry, man. Turns out I’m still just a melee-obsessed freak after all."

"Damn it! [Sword Shield]—!"

"Too slow."

A right straight exploded forward with monstrous power. If that had landed on Isaac’s bare skin, his jaw would have been reduced to powder.

『Match over! Winner: Duke Billian!』

With that, we had two wins. If we won the next one, the tournament was ours.

"Phew! Easy money! ...Is what I’d like to say, but that was actually a close one."

As Duke walked back, I noticed the right side of his training uniform was shredded. One of those attacks must have clipped him. As expected of a Duran elite, the power was no joke.

"You did well, Duke," Cynthia noted.

"Heh, just doing my job. Shari, you're up! Keep the momentum going!"

"Leave it to me! I'm definitely not losing after seeing that!"

Honestly, these guys are as close as ever. I haven't seen this specific development in the original game, but it's actually kind of heartwarming.

"Weiss, I did it!"

Yeah, you don't really need to give me a thumbs-up, buddy.

『Nobless Magic Academy is at match point! Next up: Shari Elias versus Logan Fike!』

The crowd erupted, but the mood among the VIPs from other countries shifted noticeably. I mean, I couldn't blame them for being curious. Among the high nobility, Shari's name was probably the most famous of us all.

"Weiss."

"Yeah?"

Cynthia leaned in to whisper to me.

"About Shari-san... I’ve heard some people refer to her as the 'Holy Daughter.' What exactly does that mean?"

"Oh, that? Well, she’s—"

『Match, start!』

Shari immediately put distance between herself and her opponent while readying her sword. While any decent mage could imbue magic into a weapon, Shari could perform a much rarer feat: magic fusion. Like her [Magic Thread], she could generate entirely new [Original] spells.

The reason she could do that was partly due to her incredible memory for magic formulas, but it was mostly due to the "miracle" she was born with.

"So, you're Shari. I've heard the rumors," Logan said, hefting his weapon.

"How flattering. But are you sure you want to stand there chatting? The more time you waste, the more the advantage shifts to me."

The arena’s magic circles were imbued with a sound-amplification spell, so we could hear their conversation clearly from our side. Shari wasn't bluffing; she could plant magic traps directly into the ground. When she first entered the Academy, she was a novice, but after all her recent training, she had become a nightmare to deal with.

Traps that drained mana, traps that rooted you in place, and even traps that functioned like my [Enroute]. By imbuing the tip of her sword, she could stack debuffs on her opponent with every strike. But her most terrifying ability was that she could imbue her allies' weapons and equipment too.

She was the only person in the world who could do that. That was why she was known as the Holy Daughter.

But why could she do it? It all came back to her title.

The Holy Daughter. The Saint.

"I'm not as stupid as I look," Logan countered. "Just watch."

Unfortunately, Logan Fike was Shari's natural counter. I had tried to warn her about his secret ability earlier, but she had sternly told me not to say a word. Logan, wielding a massive greatsword, began a slow chant, imbuing a formula into his blade.

That blade could temporarily nullify any and all magic.

My [Time Lapse] was an instant-cast with no real restrictions besides mana, but his version took time to prep. Still, I was glad Shari was the one facing him.

"Alright, let's get this over with! Hyaaaaaah!"

With a massive swing of his greatsword, every single trap Shari had painstakingly laid was blown away. As the magic shattered, it sounded like a thousand glass bottles breaking at once, and the mana crystals became visible to the naked eye. Well, assuming you had the right eyes to see them.

Shari, sensing the destruction of her setup, looked stunned as she raised her sword. Logan surged forward with surprising aggression.

"One hit is all I need!"

Logan was slow, but he was a powerhouse. In this arena, if you stayed out of bounds for a ten-count, you lost. The narrow space usually favored trap-setters like Shari, but in this matchup, it was a death trap.

However...

"That’s cheating, you know."

Shari soared high into the air. She hadn't been able to do that before. She must have trained specifically for verticality after that incident where she fell off the cliff.

Beside me, Cynthia’s eyes went wide.

"Is that... Carta-san's move?!"

"No, it's different. Cynthia, here’s the answer to your question. Shari is a Saint."

"A Saint? Like... the Saint?"

"Yeah. The requirement to be called a Saint is simple: you have to be loved by the spirits."

In the world of Noblesse Oblige, spirits were very real. However, almost no one had ever seen one; they were impossible to perceive. But every once in a long while, someone was born with the talent to borrow their power.

That was Shari Elias.

That was why she could imbue magic into the bodies and weapons of others. She used the power of the spirits to stabilize mana that would normally dissipate instantly. She was likely calling upon the lesser spirits floating in the very air around us. Even I couldn't see them.

In the original game, she died because of those spirits. Her death was the catalyst for Allen inheriting her power. The tragic hero gaining the strength of his fallen childhood friend—from a player's perspective, it was a classic, exciting trope.

But I had changed that. Shari was still alive, and her power was intact. From Allen’s perspective, he was technically "weaker" than his game counterpart, but he didn't know that, and he'd managed to get even stronger on his own anyway.

Personally, I think this version is much more interesting.

"What do you plan to do up there? Just hover until you run out of mana?" Logan shouted.

"I didn't just fly away to hide. [Magic Bandage]!"

"Wha—?!"

Shari thrust her hand downward, and countless ropes of light erupted from the floor, binding Logan’s limbs. Even I was impressed. I thought Logan had destroyed all the traps, but that was the real trap. She had baited him into thinking the coast was clear.

She really is brilliant.

"Damn it! It won't come off!"

She’d added a [Magic Rest] effect to the bindings. He was being drained of his mana as we watched. He was visibly weakening. In a high-level fight, a single second of immobilization was a death sentence. If he’d fallen into that trap in front of someone like Eva Avery, he’d already be in the afterlife. Shari was born to dominate a large-scale battlefield.

"This is the end! Haah!"

She dove for the finishing blow. But...

"Graaaah! [Full Shield]!"

Logan really was her worst nightmare. His entire build was focused on two things: overwhelming power and impenetrable defense. Shari was the ultimate support, but she lacked a single, decisive finishing move. Her sword chipped away at Logan’s barrier, but she couldn't break through.

If this were a team battle, the match would be over by now, but...

"[Anti-Magic]!"

Logan activated a second spell. According to the game lore, the guy had a massive ego and hated showing off his magic. To think he’d resort to [Anti-Magic], a high-level secret of the Duran School... Shari must have really pushed him to the brink. This was a match he refused to lose. He was using his trump card.

A startled Shari tried to back off, but Logan didn't miss the opening. He swung his greatsword with a speed that defied the weapon's weight. There was no way to dodge it.

"[Silent Step]—"

I couldn't believe my eyes. I knew Cynthia had mastered it, but Shari too?!

Since when?! Wait... those three were keeping secrets from me! When did they find the time to train together?!

"Gah?! You dodged that?!"

"It's over—"

Shari’s blade touched Logan’s neck. But that was as far as it went. Between the dozens of traps and the high-level evasion she wasn't used to, her mana had hit zero. She didn't have enough left to penetrate Logan’s final defense. Logan was hanging on by a thread himself—I could see his mana was almost gone—but he managed a desperate counter-swing.

The match was over.

『Winner: Logan!』

The crowd roared. The score was now 2–1. Shari staggered back to our side, supported by Allen. Duke was praising her performance, and Cynthia rushed over to console her. After seeing such a heroic display, I couldn't blame them for being emotional.

Seriously though, she looks way too depressed.

"Ugh, I lost... I'm so sorry, everyone."

"Shari."

I walked over and stood in front of her.

"If this were a real battlefield, you would have won. This is just a game. Don't let it get to you."

I was just stating a fact. I wasn't trying to be nice or anything. Shari blinked at me, then let out a boisterous laugh.

"Ahahaha! Thanks, Weiss!"

Still, that was a hell of a show. Seeing Shari go all-out in a serious 1v1 was something no one had ever seen. As an "unreleased scene," it was top-tier.

Duran was barely staying in the game, but I couldn't help but sigh. There were patterns like this in the original game. Once the plot reached this point, the next development was set in stone. Games are designed to put the protagonist’s side at a disadvantage. Noblesse Oblige was no exception.

I glanced at Allen.

Good grief, here we go again.

The referee announced that there would be a brief delay for a mid-tournament ruling. The news that followed was a shock to everyone—except me.

『Following a discussion between the Academy Directors, the final match will now be a tag-team battle! The academy of the winning pair will be crowned the overall champion!』

The arena erupted in boos. If either Allen or I had won our individual matches, we would have secured the tournament, but now everything rested on a single game. It was a clear disadvantage for Nobless Academy, but the referee clarified that our own academy had proposed the change.

"Hey! You've gotta be kidding me!" Duke shouted.

But I knew the Director. Growth through hardship—that was his entire philosophy. Honestly, there was no point in complaining. This was just the "forced difficulty" scenario playing out, exactly like the game.

What really annoyed me, though, was having to team up with Allen again.

"This has turned into quite the ordeal, Weiss," Cynthia said, looking worried.

"It’s fine. The goal hasn't changed."

As I walked toward the arena, Allen spoke up from behind me.

"Let's give it our all, Weiss. I guess it’s been since... the dragon incident?"

"Don't get the wrong idea. I’m not here to make friends. Just don't get in my way."

"The feeling is mutual."

Our opponents were Michael Thomas and his right-hand man, Lugi Strauss. I had been refining my skills specifically to overcome the coming Calamity. I didn't plan on winning by riding Allen's coattails; I was going to crush both of them with my own power.

But looking at Allen's profile, I realized something. This guy is probably planning to take them both down by himself, too.

"A tag match? How convenient. Now I can defeat you both at the same time."

When we reached the stage, Michael greeted us with that irritatingly perfect, "refreshing" smile of his. Lugi Strauss stood beside him, the picture of a serious soldier, quietly adjusting his glasses.

"Michael, let's stick to the plan. We can't lose," Lugi said.

"Right. I'm counting on you."

This was the absolute best—and worst—case scenario. Those two were used to fighting as a pair. In the game, they were childhood best friends who had spent years perfecting their tag-team tactics.

Not that it mattered to me. I was going to win, no matter what.

"Small fry love to flock together, but I’m built different. Let's see if that Durant Swordsmanship of yours can even touch me."

"Is that so? Then allow me to show you what real swordsmanship looks like."

Allen readied his blade in silence. I wasn't going to rely on him. I had to win this on my own terms—otherwise, there was no way I was going to clear the Calamity.

『And now, the final match: Nobless Magic Academy versus Duran Swordsmanship and Magic School! Weiss Fancent and Allen versus Michael Thomas and Lugi Strauss!』

The final battle for the championship cup began.