The Sword Princess's Stage (Part 1)

"Phew." Inside the private training room, Sonia lowered her wooden sword and exhaled a hot breath. The moment she stopped, glistening beads of sweat slid down her temples, tracing across her flushed cheeks, dripping like pearls onto her collarbones and trickling into the cleavage beneath her training tank top. She walked over to the side, picked up a water bottle, and drank in quick, shallow sips. Once her racing pulse gradually steadied and her nearly depleted sorcery power began to recover, the country girl simply stripped off her training tank top—it was a private training room anyway, so she prioritized comfort and convenience. The tank top was so drenched in sweat that even a light squeeze could wring water from it. She stuffed it into her laundry bag, then retrieved a dry towel to dab the sweat from behind her ears, her neck, her forehead, and beneath her breasts. After changing into clean clothes, Sonia let down her tied-up hair, grabbed her gym bag and wooden sword case, and left the training room. In the afternoon sky, the three radiant stars had drifted far apart; the sunlight was bright yet not glaring. Just as Sonia stepped out of the sorcery training hall, she spotted a familiar luxury silver sedan and the person leaning against it. "Looking for me?" "Get in, we'll talk in the car," Felix said, opening the door. "I'll give you a ride back while I'm at it." Sonia did not refuse, but neither did she take the passenger seat. Instead, she slipped into the back, making Felix seem like her chauffeur. Felix didn't mind. Driving out, she asked, "Nervous?" "Hm?" "This is your first time coming to the sorcery training hall," Felix said. "You never used to hone your skills here. I remember you saying that sorcery miracles should be sharpened through actual combat in the Void Realm, and that there was no need to waste extra time in reality beating on wooden dummies that can't hit back." Sonia thought about it. "Did I say something like that before? Well, then I was wrong." "Ah?" "I'm so young, isn't it normal to say the wrong thing sometimes?" Sonia tucked a strand of hair behind her ear, looking out at the scenery beyond the car window with a smile. "I'm just an ordinary person who makes mistakes too." Felix paused. "In that regard, you're quite like him." "Who?" "Your opponent tonight." Felix did not even want to mention his name, her expression turning somber. "He's been like that since childhood—confident, easygoing, humble, radiant. Clearly as dazzling as a radiant star, yet never shying away from his own errors and faults. When I pointed out his mistakes to his face, he would even gladly correct them..." Sonia blinked. "Then you must have had a miserable time." "Why do you think that?" "The brighter the protagonist on stage shines, the dimmer the audience below becomes." Felix froze for a moment, an unexpected prickle of emotion stinging her nose. Quickly collecting herself, she smiled. "But you never used to be this confident and generous." "What kind of image did I have in your eyes?" "An arrogant yet insecure, vulgar country girl who never yielded, refused to show weakness, and bristled like a hedgehog covered in spines," Felix answered bluntly. "Your only virtue was that you were clear about your goals and never hesitated." Sonia pondered this, then nodded. "That's true. Looking back on it myself, I feel like I used to be rather obnoxious. But you got one thing wrong: I wasn't truly someone with clear goals back then. On the contrary, I was greedy, wanting this and that—joining meaningless campus activities, cultivating useless connections with classmates. I thought I was working hard and being clever, but I was merely squandering time in self-indulgent effort. "My roommates are far smarter than me. Adele knows she's just here to enjoy university life and never envies what she can't have. Lois flaunts her family's latest fashion lines every day, and the network she builds can be effectively converted into family business. Ingrid... Ingrid's future achievements will definitely be the highest in our dorm. "I, on the other hand, bred ambitions beyond my station simply because I'd endured so much hardship growing up. If I had kept going down that path, I would have met an awful end. If not for..." Felix listened intently and asked, "If not for what?" Sonia didn't answer. Instead, she said, "Only now am I truly someone with a clear goal. I already know what I want to do, and everything else can make way for that goal." "Does this goal of yours include the Meteor Tribulation?" Felix chuckled. "Does coming to the sorcery training hall for last-minute cramming really improve your odds of winning?" "Even though I beat you to a pulp during our sparring matches back then, you're not the type to hold grudges, nor would you go out of your way just to mock me with words—unless you're itching to spar with me again." Sonia cradled her sword case and said, "You might as well speak more plainly." Felix glanced at her. Then, an adorable Two-Winged green-robed sorcery spirit popped out from her shoulder. Pointing its finger at the country girl, Sonia immediately felt her body grow remarkably nimble and light, while her senses, including sight and hearing, sharpened drastically! Yet Sonia was far more focused on the spirit itself: "A Two-Winged 'Light Feather' sorcery spirit? Felix, you're already a Two-Winged Sorcerer?" Felix nodded. "While this speed isn't worth mentioning compared to yours... yes, I'm already a Two-Winged Sorcerer." "How could you be so fast?!" Sonia blurted out. "Did you find a Golden Fish?" "How could that be? How could a Void Realm legend like that be encountered so easily?" Felix laughed. "I merely took a bit of a shortcut to advance my wind sorcery faction to Gold rank." The country girl was secretly stunned. She knew her own situation best and was well aware of how much actual substance was behind her status as a Two-Winged Sorcerer. If Watcher hadn't smuggled her along to catch the Golden Fish, it would have taken her at least three months just to touch the threshold of Gold rank. Her current Gold-rank swordsmanship realm had also progressed so rapidly only because of immense advantages: acquiring Two-Winged sorcery spirits in advance, popping Swordsmanship Orbs like snacks, and triggering fortuitous encounters in the Void Realm. If another person's advancement in a faction realm was like timid, cautious dating—holding hands, going on dates, kissing, and only then defining the relationship—then Watcher and she were the equivalent of moving in together right away and developing the relationship in reverse. By comparison, Felix seemed downright terrifying—he had actually pushed a sorcery faction to Gold rank in just over two months! Even falling in love wasn't that fast! "Wait," Sonia suddenly caught onto something. "You said you took a shortcut?" "Yes," Felix said. "That's precisely what I wanted to talk to you about. I recently joined a sorcerer exchange organization based on mutual aid. Its members are all idealists pursuing power, but because what we exchange is unsanctioned taboo knowledge, the organization operates in secrecy. Practically no one outside its membership knows about it." "Mutual aid, pursuing power, taboo knowledge, secret organization." Sonia quipped, "You've checked every single suspicious box to the point where I suspect you're deliberately making this up." "We're here." Felix brought the car to a stop outside the dormitory area. Since they were on campus, no matter how slowly she drove, it was only a matter of minutes. "So you came to recruit me into this secret organization?" "Exactly." Felix rolled down the window, lit a cigarette, and held it between her fingers. Watching the drift of the smoke, she said, "First, you are undeniably a genius with immense potential. I want to win you over and get on your good side, and nothing builds mutual trust better than belonging to the same secret organization. Second, I believe you are someone who takes shortcuts as well. "A shortcut isn't an easier or simpler path. On the contrary, the reason shortcuts are taboo knowledge is that they are far more dangerous than the ordinary route. That's why they cannot be spread openly in the world and only survive as inheritances in the Void Realm. This is also why our organization remains secret and exclusive. Even if we wanted to expand our membership, we couldn't—ordinary sorcerers taking shortcuts are merely courting death. "I can tell you frankly that to become a Two-Winged Sorcerer, I took immense risks." Felix flicked off the cigarette ash. "Yet the returns were just as monumental—relying on this shortcut was the only way I could barely keep pace with a genius like you." Sonia asked, puzzled, "You're still young. Why the rush?" "Because fate has no respect for age, so I must be fully armed." Felix looked at her through the rearview mirror. "Though I didn't have a good impression of you before, I never truly disliked you, because I feel you and I are cut from the same cloth." The country girl couldn't help but laugh. "Aside from both of us having two eyes, a nose, and a mouth, I honestly can't see what we have in common, my dear second young master of Vosloda, born with a silver spoon in your mouth." "Neither of us wants to lose," Felix said earnestly. "Someone out there gets to keep winning—why shouldn't it be us? "Of course, you're bound to have your doubts right now, but when you go back, you can ask Leonie, Professor Trozan, and the others. It's actually not rare at all for sorcerers to join secret organizations; they all have their own small circles. You advanced too quickly, Sonia, and on top of that you've been busy with the Meteor Tribulation matches, which is the only reason no one has brought you in yet. Once tonight is over, plenty of sorcerer clubs will extend olive branches to you. I'm just getting a head start to give you a heads-up." Sonia nodded and got out of the car. Just then, Felix called out to her again: "I almost forgot to tell you... Since our organization has a shortcut that allowed me to rapidly raise my wind sorcery faction realm, we naturally have shortcuts to rapidly transform your swordsmanship faction as well. "So," Felix said, staring into her eyes and pronouncing each word with deliberate weight, "do you want to become a Sanctuary Sorcerer?" Sonia's expression instantly turned bizarre, the very picture of someone wanting to speak, stopping herself, then wanting to speak again. In the end, she pressed her lips together and said, "I'll consider it." * Watching Sonia's departing figure, Felix rolled up the window and took a deep pull from the half-burned cigarette. The cigarette burned down to ash in an instant, its cinders swept by a gentle breeze into the car's ashtray. Then, she exhaled a cloud of white mist that permeated the cabin. Miracle: Mermaid Mistscape. A support-type miracle, it granted any sorcerer within the mist enhanced thinking, heightened inspiration, dampened pain perception, and amplified senses. Ever since she learned this miracle, Felix had made a habit of formulating her plans within the white mist. "The seed has been planted; all that remains is to wait for it to take root and sprout tonight." Felix stared at the burnt-out cigarette butt and murmured to herself, "Once she suffers a crushing defeat at that man's hands, bitterness and indignation will naturally take root in her heart. Indignation breeds ambition, and ambition leads to madness... No one knows this better than I do. "Lose. The more devastatingly you lose tonight, the better. "Only by enduring bitter defeat will she realize that she remains such a weak, insignificant existence. "Only by beholding that chasm of a difference will she understand just how vast the gulf still is between herself and the Sanctuary. "Tonight will become the turning point of her life."