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Much to everyone’s shock, in response to their clan’s hidden genius, the masked girl who would usually only nonchalantly nod and then proceed to deliver a ruthless beatdown to her opponents… actually smiled!
At least, that was what it looked like from what little was exposed of the girl’s face.
“If I knew someone so pretty was going to be here, I wouldn’t even have put the fighting condition up, you know?”
Despite her words, the girl still got into her regular fighting stance, making some almost roll their eyes at her hypocrisy.
Wasn’t this maniac just leaving a way out for herself if she lost?
For someone who dared to be so unbridled, wasn’t it too late to be getting cold feet now?!
Of course, some of them were still apprehensive of getting their clan’s face rubbed into the ground if even the genius brought forward by the elders got defeated, but their worries soon turned to dust as the two girls sprang into action without warning.
“Holy shit!”
“Fuck—! I can’t even see what’s going on!”
They moved so fast that most of the people present could only see blurs, and aside from the intermittent soft sound of fists, palms, and calves, only the faint marks left behind on the training ground by their movements gave the audience the assurance that they weren’t hallucinating.
“D-Don’t tell me… was that masked maniac actually holding back before?!”
“How are they so ridiculously fast…? Is that even human speed anymore…?”
Given how attractive her figure was and how good she was at combat, most of them had simply assumed that the masked girl was surely a brainless fighting freak with little capacity for thought. The thought of her preserving or hiding her true strength hadn’t even crossed their minds!
After all, her existence was already unfair enough, and to think it was only the tip of the iceberg was simply too absurd a thought.
They suddenly couldn’t help but reevaluate the mean outsider girl they’d been criticizing before. If she’d really been going all out, wouldn’t most of them be crippled already?
But… what was her purpose for doing all this, then?
Since she wasn’t as dumb as they thought, surely her reason for taking the risk to challenge their entire clan couldn’t be as simple as ‘searching for a husband’, right?
“C-Could she be the descendant of some ancient enemy clan lost to time?”
“I-It’s not impossible…!”
Of course, the more terrified they were of the masked girl, the greater their admiration for their own ‘hidden genius’!
Many of them had seen Gildroy fight over the years, and even if he might have grown slightly stronger, it was still far from reaching the level they saw in front of them right now.
In front of overwhelming speed, unless one had a ridiculously resilient body to match, both strength and technique were actually quite futile.
And from what they knew of the elders, it was highly unlikely that the hidden genius they raised would be unaware of their clan’s secret techniques.
Since the outsider girl could contend with someone like that, she would have definitely obliterated Gildroy within minutes, and that would be an entirely different level of shame on their clan’s name compared to some regular people getting beaten up.
“Never thought I’d say this, but it’s a good thing that Gildroy is an ungrateful little whelp, after all.”
“Yep, if he really came and got rubbed into the ground by that monster, wouldn’t that be a slap to our clan’s face?”
“It wouldn’t be anything new. He’s taken quite a liking to bringing shame to the Nightingale name recently, after all.”
Some of them chuckled, though the resentment in their tone made it clear that they didn’t find the situation nearly as ‘funny’ as their words might suggest.
Of course, most of their attention was still focused on the fight in front of them. What little they could observe of it, anyway. Fortunately, even if they couldn’t really tell who was winning or losing directly, the expressions of the elders gave them a good enough idea anyway.
“The elders look so confident… it must be going well, right?”
“Definitely, otherwise their expressions would definitely be more grim.”
Such whispers inadvertently reached a few elders, but they could only pretend to be oblivious while crying in their hearts. ‘We really can’t see any better than you!’
Of course, they couldn’t very well admit that they were just as oblivious to what was going on as everyone else. That would be too embarrassing!
Fortunately, the ‘stalemate’ abruptly came to an end soon enough as the black-clad girl was sent stumbling back haphazardly as she tried to balance herself.
“W-Wow! You’re good! L-Let’s continue!”
Looking at her shining and awed eyes, no one would have been able to guess that the two of them were just playing around, and the masked girl’s words threw more than a few for a loop.
Of course, they were ecstatic that their own ‘hidden genius’ had an edge over the outsider, but…
“What the fuck is wrong with her brain?!”
“Could it be that she really wanted to marry the one who could beat her up…?”
The light in the strange girl’s eyes was definitely not fake, and anyone could tell just how happy she must be to finally encounter someone who could ‘defeat’ her.𝗈𝒱𝐞𝗅xt.𝗇𝓔t
How hardcore of an ‘M’ must this girl be for her to be so passionate about it all?
Unaware of everyone’s strange thoughts, Noelle almost rolled her eyes at Emilia’s teasing words. ‘She really is too much sometimes! Not only trying to pinch my butt, but also taunting and teasing me so openly!’
It was one thing to do it in private or around people they knew or were familiar with, and another thing entirely to do it in a place filled with strangers!
The gray-haired girl had been so embarrassed that she instinctually struck back with too much strength in a panic, and her minx of a girlfriend used it to her full advantage to pretend that she’d taken a heavy blow.
Of course, Noelle wasn’t oblivious to the fact that Emilia’s adaptability was actually good for her. The gray-haired girl knew her lack of acting talent better than anyone else, after all.
But she still couldn’t help but be slightly frustrated. ‘How am I supposed to put her in a chokehold if she’s moving so absurdly fast, anyway?’
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