Magic Academy Bans Harem

Chapter 353 The Secret History of Elson

"Back in the 'Cross Hall,' I truly felt fear towards you, young lady. It had nothing to do with status or position; it was simply that, as a living being, I genuinely found you incredibly terrifying. And I also felt that as long as you were around, I might spend my entire life as a pursuer in the shadows. So, in a way, I'm very grateful for your departure. It's because of the various 'vacancies' that I am who I am today—"

In the dimly lit corridor of memories, the deadly battle between Fernandez and Cortriñe continues.

He utters words of "gratitude" and "fear," but Fernandez currently holds an almost absolute advantage.

If we're just talking about something like drive, Cortrienne has always had it.

Even when she was covered in wounds, her sword strikes still possessed considerable power.

However, it's unclear whether Fernandez's swordsmanship style was a perfect counter to Cortriene, or whether a significant difference in skill had emerged between the two.

The situation was that in each exchange, Fernandez only needed to barely withstand Cortriñe's first few blows. Then, he could use a rather flexible and even slippery method to directly injure Cortriñe from various incredible angles other than the front, forcing her to bleed and retreat.

Because of the existence of the decisive sword strike, the Elson style of swordsmanship often gives the impression of being ruthless and decisive, ending the fight in a single blow. However, in reality, the Elson style also encompasses various fighting styles. The style adopted by Fernandez represents the more circuitous, refined, elegant, and rational aspects of the Elson style.

"Three years? No, two years at most. Back then, everyone involved with Elson School probably thought that it would only take two years for the young lady to become the next Sword Saint. So, even now, I'm still very surprised. Why would the young lady suddenly choose to give up all of this?"

As he continued to add more wounds to Cortrienne, Fernandez continued speaking.

He might have felt that he was displaying a level of ease in handling his "prey." However, to the onlookers, the goddess of the bath and Millie, Fernandez seemed to have only a deep obsession with Cortriene.

This obsession has reached a pathological level.

It was probably during his time in the Hall of the Cross that Fernandez's sense of inferiority in contrast to Cortriñe began to surface.

In contrast, Cortrienne remained silent, her somber face gradually fading into the surrounding darkness.

"Waving around that thing doesn't seem like you at all, young lady. After all, no matter how exquisitely made, it's still just a toy to us."

Fernandez then turned to mock Cortelene's magical umbrella.

"You spent so much time mastering that ridiculous power, what was it all for? It can't really be, like the rumors say, just to chase after 'men,' can it?"

Fernandez's voice gradually became indistinct.

As the scenes in my memory flickered, they began to dissipate and change.

"Huh!? It broke right here?"

Unable to control the direction of the fragmented memories, the goddess of the bath couldn't help but let out a troubled sound.

As the memories continued to shift and reappear, the Bathing Goddess and Millie breathed a slight sigh of relief.

Because Cortelene's memory is very recent, they were worried that it might be the "last" time.

Upon closer reflection, they hadn't figured out the patterns or conditions under which the memories appeared. Therefore, it wasn't surprising that the timing and order of the events were somewhat chaotic.

"If I remember correctly, Professor Cortelene should have repelled the attackers and successfully protected Charlotte, right? However, judging from this battle situation..."

Millie frowned slightly, looking somewhat confused.

She couldn't imagine what kind of twist would happen next for Cortelene to turn the tide and win.

A gap of several years is simply too fatal.

Furthermore, if Cortelene began neglecting her swordsmanship to some extent when she started attending magic school, then the time she had wasted might even exceed the time she had spent practicing swordsmanship.

Therefore, the difference in strength between Fernandez and Cortriñe is quite obvious.

Moreover, in a fierce, one-hit-kill duel, there might be unexpected events and miracles. But Fernandez's style of fighting, where he controls the entire situation and manipulates his opponent, makes it impossible for him to make any basic mistakes.

"Kurt too! Why don't you ask that bastard Phil why he did this?! Didn't he just suddenly defect from the Elson family?"

The goddess of bathing couldn't help but complain.

Charlotte and Ritas didn't seem to care about Fernandez at all. Cortriene, on the other hand, didn't even bother to ask him a question when he was right across the street.

So now, the strange situation that seems to be of most interest to the goddess of bathing is the defection of Fernandez.

"Hasn't Xia Lu said anything? After all, her younger brother, Sonny, was taken away by Fernandez."

She basically doesn't say anything either.

The goddess of bathing sighed softly.

"What she meant was that Sonny's behavior was typical of adolescence, like going astray with bad friends and running away from home. There's no need to take it too seriously, and definitely no need to look for him. He'll probably come back on his own in a while—but who knows, he'll come back on his own!"

Sometimes, even the goddess of bathing is impressed by the students of the Purplewood Class.

It's true that if the upper beam is crooked, the lower beam will be crooked too. In the entire class, you can't find many normal people around Ritas!
"what"

Millie thought of Charlotte and her brother, both of whom were adventurers. And for adventurers, this kind of thing was quite common.

After the two casually discussed things related to Xia Lu, the next memory scene appeared.

And it was from this point that memories began to flash and shift rapidly. In addition to being intermittent, things such as time and place were also very chaotic.

After watching and memorizing as many of the scenes in Cortrinie's memory as possible, the two exchanged opinions and roughly organized them.

Around the time Cortrinet nearly killed her training mate in her own training ground, her father sent her to the "Elson Manor."

Similar to what they had experienced in that mansion. During that time, Roland, the head of the Elson family, considered retiring and handing over the reins to his younger brother, Freud. Therefore, he entered a semi-retired state, rarely involved in affairs, and focused on training the next generation of Elson-style swordsmen in the mansion's Cross Hall.

Furthermore, unlike their previous experiences, in the real world, Cortrienne arrived at the Elson mansion much earlier.

"Tsk tsk, big brother, you really are the 'clerk Elson' of the family. You can't even teach such a young child properly, so you had to send him to me. Don't worry, Kurt, I was better than your father when I was five years old, so I definitely can teach you. Don't be shy, just make yourself at home."

At that moment, Roland, who never held his tongue, shouted this at the top of his lungs, and then laughed heartily for a while.

This made Remer, who was known as "the administrative Elson," turn extremely dark-faced, looking like he was about to explode and fight Roland at any moment.

However, the two brothers did not end up fighting.

Remer must have known he couldn't beat the Sword Saint.
And so, Cortrienne arrived at the Elson mansion and entered the Cross Hall. Initially, perhaps because the handover work was not yet completed, Roland, who was busy with various matters every day, had no time to manage the affairs of the school and simply left Cortrienne to "be left to fend for herself" in the Cross Hall.

Apart from a few "Elsons" who got in through connections, the students who could train in the Cross Hall were no longer complete novices.

Therefore, the youngest member is four or five years older than Cortrinie.

Even so, in the first live-fire exercise, Cortriñe still committed the atrocity of severely injuring her opponent.

Just like the time at her own home, if it weren't for the timely intervention of the person in charge of supervision, Cortrienne really looked like she was going to beat her opponent to death.

Faced with Cortriene's utterly incomprehensible ferocity, the people in the Cross Hall quickly isolated her.

Cortrienne, however, seemed unconcerned about the situation.

Having long been accustomed to this feeling, she now simply uses her dangerous gaze to search for and lock onto the next victim each day.

Until one day, Cortrienne discovered an oddity in the Hall of Crosses.

Elson, who is even weaker than "Clerical Elson", is a "connected Elson".

Miss Elson, whose sword swings were all crooked and erratic, looked so out of place in the Cross Hall, which was filled with images of powerful figures.

That's why, when Cortrienne walked towards Charlotte, everyone around her panicked.

On one side was the most ferocious Elson, and on the other was the most delicate Elson. Cortrienne could crush Charlotte with one hand as easily as squashing a chick.

But Xia Luoluo is the daughter of the Sword Saint and the family head who has not yet fully stepped down!
If something really happens to her.
Fortunately, the situation that those around them feared did not occur.

Cortrienne went around behind Charlotte and lifted her high into the air, completely unaware of anything.

"Who! Who is it?! Put me down!"

Amid Charlotte's frantic thrashing about, Cortriena revealed her first genuine smile since the beginning of her memories.

After arbitrarily establishing some rules, Cortrienne's world became different from that of ordinary people. It seemed that for the first time, she had found a novel and interesting "place of peace" in her own world.

I don’t sense any threat from Xia Luoluo.

As Charlotte herself said, this was the only reason Corteline was initially willing to get close to Charlotte.

While Xia Luoluo gives off a prickly vibe, she is clearly the type who is less responsive to others' advances.

So, after Cortriñe clung to him for a while, their relationship quickly became better.

Both Charlotte and Cortriena were quite lonely at Elson's mansion. And unlike Elson, who was equally lonely but completely unconcerned about and even actively embraced his loneliness, these two girls needed the companionship of friends their own age.

So, the two naturally began to be inseparable and talk about everything.

It was during this period that Cortrienne's reputation gradually improved.

On one hand, perhaps because she had finally begun to mature, she learned to restrain herself. On the other hand, Roland, back at the mansion, began to personally teach Cortriene, which reduced her opportunities to abuse other students.

Furthermore, the gentleness that Cortrinet displays when facing Charlotte is sometimes noticed by others. This has led to rumors such as "Cortrinet is actually very easy to get along with behind closed doors."

In short, from this period onward, Cortriñe's life finally seemed to return to normal.

But it was during this period that Cortriñe was forced into the biggest blunder of Charlotte's life.

What? That so-called "cursed child" who was so wicked he was practically oozing pus was actually just a misunderstanding?

That day, Cortriena was also at a loss when she saw Charlotte crouching on the ground, clutching her head and asking, "What should I do now?"

She wanted to ask what to do!

She had offered plenty of advice and suggestions before.

It's just that Xia Luoluo didn't execute the plan well, otherwise we might not even be able to find the "Cursed Child" now.

The only thing Cortrinet was thankful for was that she didn't actually resort to violence to avenge Charlotte.

Cortriene had considered it, but after catching a glimpse of Ritas from afar, she gave up.

At that time, Ritas, who clearly did not know how to use magic to make his daily life more comfortable, was in a visibly bad state in every aspect.

Therefore, Cortriñe was genuinely worried that if she pushed the other person, they would fall to the ground and never get up again.
It was probably around that time that Cortriñe noticed that, besides Charlotte, there was another person in the mansion who posed "completely no threat" to her.

Perhaps he wanted to express his apology, perhaps he wanted to do something for Xia Luoluo, or perhaps he simply wanted to learn about someone who seemed to meet his "standards".

In her memory, Cortriñe begins to try to get close to Ritas.

But such opportunities are far fewer than one might imagine.

Because, unlike the experiences of the goddess of the bath and Millie, Ritas, in his youth, did not receive extensive training in the Hall of Crosses. He only tried it briefly and gave up immediately after confirming that he had no talent.

During this period, a great deal of estrangement and distance developed between Roland and his son Ritas. Roland felt guilty about how to handle the misunderstandings and conflicts between his children, making it difficult for him to face Ritas. As a result, they maintained a polite distance as if they were "outsiders," with Roland even bossing Ritas around and being too embarrassed to make any basic requests, simply letting Ritas do whatever he wanted.

The reason why Ritas and Charlotte appear together in the Cross Hall in the fairy tale world is actually because Roland, using Millie's talent as an excuse, wanted to improve the various entanglements within the family by having his children interact more.

In reality, Ritas's physical inaccessibility and elusive nature seem to have aroused Cortriene's strong interest.

So Cortrienne, who had been staking out near Ritas's courtyard for a while, finally found a suitable opportunity one day.

"Hmph~ It's quite rare for you to leave your room. It's really a coincidence and an adventure to see you here! By the way, although you may know me, I don't think I've formally introduced myself to you yet. My name is Cortriene, Cortriene Elson."

"It's an honor to meet you, Miss Cortellen. Considering our current location and time, our meeting seems quite coincidental and serendipitous."

That night.

Lying on the roof of the house, gazing up at the night sky, Ritas said this with a subtle expression.

(End of this chapter)