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Act 1-20.3 : Showdown Against Childhood Friend
Kuroki erected a wall of black flames to defend himself as Light Wings’ arrows rained down on him.
「GOTCHA!」
Shirone flapped her wings and quickly flew around the room, distracting Kuroki with her shadow. Once she found an opening, she immediately attacked Kuroki’s back.
「Lightning Blade!」
Electric discharges enveloped Shirone’s blue sword. As it swung, raging thunderbolts raced towards Kuroki.
「Kuh!」
Kuroki twisted his body, taking the blow with his sword. His demon sword was made of a special material with high resistivity, which opposed conductivity. The thunderbolts were absorbed by his sword, their power immediately dying down.
「Not bad!」
Shirone’s next attack came down towards Kuroki like a raging storm as she accelerated her movements.
With the current strength she was showing, it was obvious that she was now as fast as Reiji. Yet, her attacks were all made in vain as Kuroki either dodged them or parried them with his sword.
It had been a while since the last time Kuroki had fought with Shirone. Ever since she had joined Reiji’s party, Kuroki had rarely had the chance to spar with her. It felt great to do it once again.
（She became stronger than before.）
Kuroki mused about her achievements while receiving her sword. He was aware that her swordplay had become even faster, which he was proud of. Yet, he knew that her blatant weakness still remained.
（I see that her swordcraft is still as lousy as ever.）
Seeing the shadow of her past through her fighting skills, Kuroki started reminiscing about his happier days. Shirone’s swordcraft had always been straightforward. That’s why Kuroki could always easily see through her attacks. The situation was still the same now. He wished that he could make her happy and let her win, but with the current situation, he couldn’t imagine himself losing to Shirone nor allow himself to do so. Firstly, she wouldn’t be happy if he intentionally allowed her to win, secondly, and most importantly—time was now of the essence.
（There’s no time left! I have to end this as soon as possible.）
Kuroki was running out of time. He predicted that Rena would call for reinforcements and that they would come soon.
（I guess play time is over. But, I have to make Shirone listen to me. The problem is how? Will she even hear me if I keep my identity hidden like this? Anyway, I have to defeat Shirone first. Let’s think about the persuasion later.）
Kuroki mused as he resolutely started to fight back.
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（Strong. None of my attacks can reach him.）
Was what Shirone felt as she fought against the Dark Knight before her.
（My attacks are all easily seen through by him, and he either parries my sword or dodges my attacks completely.）
While contemplating her current standing in the battle, Shirone sent another attack, which the Dark Knight effortlessly dodged with a paper thin margin yet again.
Shirone was really surprised seeing those gliding movements. She would’ve gladly praised him for his skill, if he wasn’t their enemy.
As far as she knew, there was only one person who could perform such a feat, and that person was none other than her uncle, who married into her family.
Her aunt, the one who had requested her to become Reiji’s escort, had fallen in love with a mundane man. However, taking into consideration her family’s standing, Shirone’s aunt could never marry into a man’s family, thus the man had to give up that right and join his wife’s family instead. The man, now Shirone’s uncle, had readily agreed as he was as in love with Shirone’s aunt as she was in love with him.
Marrying into his wife’s family, her uncle was literally a henpecked husband, that’s why Shirone never had a good impression of him. However, this had all changed when she saw him in battle—that same henpecked husband would turn into a completely different person when he held a sword in his hand. He had taken his wife’s mantle and had improved its martial arts, one of them the skill she had just seen.
—The Dark Knight’s gliding movements greatly resembled her uncle’s.
That’s why Shirone could now judge that the Dark Knight’s strength was equal to that of her uncle.
（Come to think of it, the one who adopted Kuroki into our family was my uncle.）
Shirone ended up recalling that matter in the middle of battle. However, she had to cut her nostalgic thoughts short as her fight with the Dark Knight had yet to end.
（He’s basically toying with me!）
As their duel continued on, Shirone grew more and more impatient. The Dark Knight was clearly more powerful than her. The only reason why their battle had not ended until now was merely because the Dark Knight had never even considered attacking her.
Shirone was mortified since the other party was a coward who pointed his sword at an unarmed woman. Yet, she couldn’t even defeat that supposed coward.
Even so, she kept swinging her sword.
Then, after swinging her sword for the upteenth time, she suddenly felt her hand getting lighter, a clear metallic sound accompanying this emptiness across the entire room.
Perplexed, she looked down, only to realize that her sword was no longer in her hand.
Instead, it was rolling on the floor beside her.
Shirone’s shock increased to a whole new level as she realized what her opponent had just done.
（No way? He attacked right before I put more strength into my grip?）
As a rule of thumb, the basics of swordsmanship always asserted that a swordsman should never grip their sword strongly at all times. Instead, the truest way of swordsmanship was for one to grip their weapon softly, only increasing their grip’s strength when the sword was being swung towards the opponent. The moment when the sword would softly be gripped was called a ” Hollow State”, while the moment when the sword was strongly gripped was called a “Truth State”.
It was exactly when Shirone was in the middle of transitioning from the “Hollow State” to the “Truth State” to attack the Dark Knight that he had disarmed her.
The sword that was loosely clasped was struck by the Dark Knight’s sword and fell from Shirone’s hand.
Shirone almost couldn’t believe what she just experienced, to think that someone in this world could have such divine skills.
“Monster” was Shirone’s impression of the Dark Knight now.
（The Dark Knight never took me seriously. He never considered me as his opponent!）
Before she knew it, tears were welling up along the rims of her eyes.
「You must think that I really have no chance to win against you, huh!」
Shirone glared at the Dark Knight as she cried.
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‘It was easier than I expected’— mused Kuroki as he disarmed Shirone.
（Ya~ay, I seized her “Hollow State” perfectly. Good job ME!）
Kuroki praised himself for his achievement.
This skill wasn’t one that could be used by amateurs, who always gripped their sword strongly. One had to be able to analyze their opponent’s attack pattern and perfectly time the counterattack to disarm them. This was no easy feat if your opponent was as skilled as you. However, the reason why he was able to use this skill on Shirone was because he had sparred with her numerous times in the past, making him familiar with all of her patterns. Moreover, she was weaker than him.
（Now that she lost her sword, Shirone won’t fight back anymore. The next thing I need to do is make her to listen to me.）
Kuroki racked his brain, he needed to find a way to tell her about their situation while still maintaining his identity as the Dark Knight.
Not finding any solution to this conundrum, Kuroki looked up at Shirone, who was still glaring at him with tears flowing down from her eyes.
（Uwaah, she’s really mad now. I don’t think she’ll listen to me no matter what I tell her.）
Kuroki approached Shirone, opening his mouth to explain, but he could not utter a word as Shirone immediately cut him with her bellows.
「You must think that I really have no chance to win against you, huh!」
Kuroki’s gait halted as soon as he heard her words. He was really speechless now since Shirone was earnestly crying
「Soon, Reiji-kun will come and defeat you!」
Her mournful shouts continued as she caught up her breath.
「BECAUSE REIJI-KUN IS WAY MORE POWERFUL THAN YOU!!!!」
Those words deeply stabbed Kuroki’s heart.
（The truth is really painful afterall!）
Kuroki remembered the moment when Shirone had said the same thing to him in their original world. She was now uttering the same words she spoke after they had had a huge quarrel about Reiji.
These memories sharply wounded him. The painful, barbed thorns of that time had been sticking in his heart since then, and now, they were gravely piercing his heart yet again, puncturing it a million times—he felt his entire soul bleeding.
（So I really can’t win against Reiji even if I defeat him in a fight, huh…）
Kuroki’s miserable complaints could only be lodged in his throat as he looked at the crying Shirone.
（I made her cry. It’s as if I really am the bad one here.）
Kuroki was really depressed inside. He only wanted to tell her the truth of the matter, and yet, he was now unable to do so.
（I’ve already destroyed the summonig assistant devices, it should be enough to keep her away from danger. That’s assuming that Rena wouldn’t try to harm them later on.）
Right when he was pondering over that matter, a commotion was heard outside,  a group of people then barged into the altar room.
「Shirone, are you okay?!」
「SHIRONE-SAN!」
Reiji and his companions all screamed Shirone’s name as they made their way in.
「R-Reiji… kun?」
Shirone’s cries ceased a little bit, a smile replacing her previous wails as she looked at Reiji.
However, she didn’t know that her loving smile had dealt Kuroki a critical hit. He shut his eyes in anguish as he felt his body turn cold.
「YOU BA*TARD! GET AWAY FROM HER!!」
Reiji barked at Kuroki as he readied his sword.
Seeing that figure, Kuroki thought that Reiji greatly resembled a knight in shining armor, riding a white horse to save the princess.
（I guess the only choice for me, the evil one, is to leave this place, huh.）
Kuroki lowered his sword, losing the will to fight. He then walked away from Shirone.
As he turned his back on them, he could hear Reiji and his party’s bewildered voices from behind, but he honestly didn’t care anymore. It was hopeless for him anyway.
He invoked a black flame in his hand as he walked away from them.
Looking at his black flame, darker than the night sky’s abyss, Kuroki felt that it was a perfect personification of the gloomy emotions in his heart.
He flicked the inky flame towards the ceiling, burning it to a crisp and melting it like a piece of butter, leaving no rubble behind.
Kuroki leaped out from the altar room, and then immediately invoked his flight magic.
（Let’s go back to Nargol. That murky land might be the most suitable place for me.）
He knew that the Gods of Light’s subordinates might discover his presence if he used flight magic so blatantly, but he really didn’t care anymore.
It was in this manner that Kuroki’s lonely figure flew under the moonlight.