"Oh? Edward! I was really worried about you. I'm relieved to see you doing well."
Dylan smiled at me.
Obviously, not a single word of that came from his heart.
I closed my eyes and took a slow breath, trying to suppress the urge to beat him up right there on the field.
How would the Edward from the game have handled this kind of situation?
I tried to picture it.
Not the Edward from the second game, the completely broken one, the one who had already gone too far.
No.
The Edward from the first game, after joining Ante-Eden.
To me, that had been the best version of Edward.
Cold.
Dangerous, but still controlled.
Once I calmed down enough, I opened my eyes again.
"I'm glad to be back too," I said. Then I tilted my head slightly. "Huh… what was your name again?"
The moment I asked that with a blank, questioning gaze, Dylan's expression twisted.
Around us, the spectators and both teams fell into an awkward silence.
"My apologies," I added with a faint sigh, raising both hands. "I know you're one of those guys who follows Miranda around like a dog, but I forgot your name."
Jayden and Tyler looked completely dumbfounded by the way I spoke.
Sorry, guys.
But there was no way I was going to act like a proper noble with someone like him.
"Edward…"
Dylan's smile was gone now.
Good.
That made me feel a little better.
"By the way, where's Miranda?" I asked, lifting a hand to my forehead as if I were searching the area. "She's probably missing me."
On a side note, I already knew where Miranda was.
I just avoided looking at her because she was staring at me like she wanted to carve my name into my gravestone herself.
"I'll humiliate you here, Edward," Dylan spat.
"L-Let's begin."
Theo quickly stepped in before things got worse.
He was acting as referee for this match, and the silver ball in his hand made that very clear.
"Edward's team will start," he announced, "since they are at a disadvantage."
At least someone had the honesty to say it out loud.
"Hmph. He could have a hundred teammates and still wouldn't beat me."
Dylan snorted.
I ignored him and took the ball from Theo.
It wasn't particularly heavy or light.
Just balanced enough to feel right in the hand.
While Theo went over a few last details, I rolled the ball over my palm and tested its response.
"I repeat, this is a friendly match."
"Why are you staring at me when you say that?" Dylan snapped.
"You know why, Dylan. Remember who his father is."
"I have no ties whatsoever with that shitty father, so go all out."
I cut Theo off and smiled at Dylan.
"Edward, it's—"
"Referee, you're talking too much," I said lazily. "Look, they're already getting impatient."
I pointed toward the increasingly grumpy spectators.
Theo gritted his teeth and backed away.
I smiled and floated a few meters back.
A thin film of mana wrapped itself around the hand holding the ball.
Now the ball could float, and as long as my mana remained imprinted on it or it stayed in contact with my palm, I could control it.
That part came easily.
My mana control was good enough for that.
The real problem was the boots and bracers.
Those artifacts were what allowed us to float and move through the air, and I still barely understood the mechanism behind them. Because of that, every movement I made felt unstable, as if my body no longer belonged to me.
Theo raised his hand.
I sharpened my senses and prepared myself.
My teammates did the same.
Well.
Some of them did.
A few already looked half-dead before the match had even started.
"Start!"
The moment the word fell, I poured mana into my boots and jumped.
In less than a second, Dylan was already in front of me.
Fast.
I twisted my body, trying to spin past him, but his left hand shot out and smacked the ball right out of my grip.
"Tch."
The ball flew away.
For a second, I thought possession was gone.
Then Tyler caught it.
My teammates rushed him, or at least attempted to. 'Rushed' was giving them too much credit. They floated toward him awkwardly and threw a bunch of elemental attacks his way.
Fire.
Water.
Wind.
Tyler smirked and raised his free hand.
"Heracles!"
At the sound of that, my eyes narrowed.
His ability had activated.
His blessing, his legacy, whatever name you gave it, came from Heracles.
Which meant his physical strength would rise up.
At the same time, the bracers on his arms lit up and a transparent dome formed around him. The runes engraved into the bracers had activated a barrier. Any of us could use it, but each bracer had a ten-minute cooldown, and since we wore two, that meant two uses total.
Elemental attacks slammed against the barrier and were repelled easily.
To break that kind of barrier, there were only two options.
Brute force.
Or another bracer canceling it directly.
"Too easy," Dylan laughed.
I pushed mana into my boots and tried to fly toward Tyler.
Or rather, I tried to.
"Fuck!"
My footing slipped and I began falling awkwardly toward the ground.
If your body touched the ground, you were penalized for two minutes.
But come on.
This was my first time using these boots or even playing Skyball.
Of course it was going to happen.
"Jayden! Here!"
Tyler dodged around three of my teammates and threw the ball toward Jayden.
"Got it!"
Jayden shot upward and caught it cleanly.
Then sparks of lightning danced around his body.
And the second I saw that, I knew it was over.
He was going to score.
With a loud swoosh, Jayden vanished in a streak of lightning.
A crackling sound rang through the air.
Then silence.
"Three points for Team A!" Theo shouted.
While awkwardly trying to regain my balance, I looked at Jayden.
He had slipped straight through our defense, if I was feeling generous enough to call that mess a defense and scored in the red ring.
It was his first time playing too.
Tyler's as well.
And yet both of them were obviously much better than me at flying, adjusting, dodging, all of it.
"Ball for Team B."
I glanced at the clock.
Five minutes remained.
Since this was only a friendly match, there was no way it was going to last the full official hour.
"Isn't it basically over already?"
"Yeah, I can't see Team B turning this around."
"Well, Dylan is on the other team too. It's kind of unfair for Edward."
Like some tragic protagonist in a cheap story, I could hear the negative whispers floating around me.
[
I smiled faintly at Cleenah's words.
'I'm not here to win, Cleenah. What's the probability of success, Jarvis?'
[Less than 0.2 percent.]
'See?'
[
Then.
Once I got back into position, I stretched my limbs in several awkward motions, mostly because I still had no proper idea how to stabilize myself in midair using those ridiculous boots.
Dylan burst out laughing.
Then his teammates joined in.
Only Jayden and Tyler didn't.
"I-I'm sorry, Edward…"
I didn't even turn around to face my teammates as I dusted off my uniform.
"You all realize none of you are getting selected, right? Maybe the girls might be chosen as reserves at best, but that's the limit."
I threw the truth at them without mercy.
Even in a bad match, you could still be picked if you showed enough talent.
But not for the elite teams.
And I was not going to accept ending up outside the elite.
"Y-Yeah…"
They lowered their heads.
"If this keeps going, I'm going down because of you."
I continued adjusting my clothes.
And yes, that was unacceptable.
"Y-Yes, that's why we're sor—"
"I don't need your apology."
I cut him off coldly.
Then I tilted my head toward the other side.
"You see them laughing at you?"
I didn't need to look.
I knew exactly what the first-years on the other team looked like right now, smug, relieved, proud of a victory they were only enjoying because Dylan, Jayden, and Tyler were carrying them.
Behind me, I could feel my teammates stiffen.
Anger.
Embarrassment.
Frustration.
Good.
"Don't you want to at least destroy their dream before you leave?"
"...."
I smiled.
"I'll take that as a yes. The plan is simple."
[
I ignored Cleenah and quickly gave them my instructions.
….
"So, Edward," Dylan called out mockingly, "do you really think some last-minute plan is going to make your team win?"
His teammates laughed again.
They weren't even third-rate villains.
They were mob characters.
"My bad, Dylan," I replied casually. "I was just telling them about my old dates with Miranda. They were curious."
"..."
Dylan immediately looked toward my teammates.
My teammates, panicking, shook their heads so hard it was almost sad.
"Enough talking, Dylan," I said with a smirk. "Are you the senior here, or am I?"
"Shut it!"
"Start!"
At Theo's signal, I gripped the ball and surged forward.
Or rather, I tried to.
I still moved horribly.
There was no point denying it.
I was zigzagging through the air like a drunk bird.
No, not like one.
I definitely was zigzagging because of my inexperience.
Since I couldn't properly stabilize myself anyway, I decided to stop fighting it and use that awkward motion to my advantage.
"It's over!"
Dylan rushed me and reached for the ball.
I stepped back...
Then purposefully let myself fall.
As my body dropped upside down, I saw the exact moment confusion hit his face.
I was a beginner.
Anyone would assume that recovering from a backwards fall while floating with your feet over your head was impossible.
"You—!"
He noticed too late.
One of my teammates shot below me and caught me.
Or rather, he caught enough of me.
We fell toward the ground together, except I didn't actually touch it, because my dear teammate used his own body to keep mine from making contact with the floor.
Lying half on top of him, I looked upward.
Every idiot on Team A was staring at me now, stunned by how shameless that move had been.
Too much attention.
Perfect.
"H-Hey!"
"What?!"
Jayden and Tyler both shouted in shock.
Dylan turned.
And the moment he did, he saw two girls clinging tightly to Jayden while another girl wrapped herself around Tyler.
The girls from my team were doing their job.
Pressing themselves against them hard enough that both boys went bright red.
Tyler, especially, froze like his brain had shut down entirely.
"...!"
I threw the ball at the back of Dylan's head.
It bounced off and came right back toward me.
"Where are you looking, senior?"
Dylan spun around, furious.
"Y-You! That's underhanded!"
I smiled and rushed toward the red ring, where only Dylan's worthless teammates remained to defend.
"Like hell I'll let—"
"Stop!"
The remaining three boys on my team overloaded their bracers with mana and hurled themselves toward Dylan.
Dylan panicked the moment he saw the bracers glowing.
An overloaded bracer wasn't truly dangerous, but its effects could completely overturn a match.
I closed my eyes.
Then—
-Boom!
A burst of blinding light swallowed the field.
No one could see anything.
"Falkrona Bloodline Ability, Celeritas First Wing."
The instant I invoked it, my thoughts accelerated.
Everyone's positions on the field became sharp and clear inside my mind, as though the whole scene had been frozen and mapped out for me.
I poured mana into my right boot and kicked off hard.
In the span of an instant, I struck.
One.
Two.
Three.
I punched and kicked every useless defender out of my path, one after another, until I stopped in front of the red ring.
The light faded.
Only the three girls on my team remained floating in place, still clinging to a blushing Jayden and Tyler.
Dylan was there too.
That made seven of us still in the air.
"It's a shame, senior."
Dylan turned around.
His face twisted in shock when he saw me spinning the ball on my index finger.
"Y-You used your own teammates!"
He pointed beneath me, where the others had fallen or hung exhausted, their mana spent after overloading their bracers.
Overloading a bracer wasn't fatal, but it could get you disqualified. The artifact stopped functioning afterward, and the mana backlash could throw off your control badly.
"I didn't lose, at least."
It was my first time playing this sport.
Sure, it was only a friendly match, so it wasn't truly intense.
But still, it was fun.
A lot fun.
Especially seeing Dylan's face like that.
I glanced at the scoreboard.
[Team A 3 VS 0 Team B]
10…
9…
8…
In the lingering silence filling the field, I flicked the ball forward.
It passed cleanly through the red ring.