Chivalry of a Failed Knight Vol. 3

“Hey, girl! Your skirt! Your skirt’s pulled up!”

“Huh? Oh nooooo!” Thanks to Stella’s warning, she finally realized that she had pretty much shoved her butt into Ikki’s face and rushed to right her skirt. “I-I’m so sorry you had to see that disgusting sight!”

“You’re fine… Ahaha.”

“Were you looking, Ikki?”

“Would you believe me if I said I wasn’t?”

“Do you think I would?”

“I don’t. Hm?”

As Ikki sighed, something appeared in his peripheral vision. It was a pair of round glasses with very thick lenses.

Oh, is this what she was looking for?

Correctly guessing the reason she was shaking her booty while on her hands and knees, Ikki picked up the glasses and offered them to the girl.

“Hey, isn’t this what you’re looking for?”

“Yes! That’s it! Thank you so much! Let me tell you, I can’t see without my glasses!”

The female student turned around to face Ikki and thanked him as she accepted the glasses. That was when Ikki and Stella finally got a good look at her face.

“Huh?”

“Wha—?!”

They froze in terror.

“Hey, aren’t you…”

The girl, with her chestnut hair styled into two French braids, was the very person who had just overwhelmed Shizuku with her might, the strongest student in all of Hagun Academy.

“Raikiri? Touka Toudou?!”

“Um, yes? Why do you ask?”

◆◇◆◇◆

“Oh, there you are, Pres! Heya!”

“Hello, Mishima.”

“Congratulations on your victory today, President!”

“Thank you for cheering me on, Sayama.”

“Hi, President Toudou! Thanks again for helping me find my wallet! I’m really sorry it ended up taking all day.”

“Pay it no mind, Itagaki. Besides, we only found it thanks to Uta; I honestly didn’t help much at all. Oh, but please, do take extra care to keep track of it.”

Every few steps she took, Touka was greeted by students, both boys and girls alike. She responded to each of them politely and by name. Ikki and Stella watched the spectacle from a few steps behind, holding the papers that Touka had been carrying before.

“People really love her, huh?”

“I’m just doing what any student council president should do,” Touka said in response to Stella’s honest thoughts, smiling as if she were somewhat embarrassed. “Anyway, thank you both. You didn’t just pick those up for me, you even helped me carry them.”

“Oh, no, don’t worry about it. That was way too much for one person, anyway.”

“Ahaha… I got lazy and wanted to make it in one trip. That’s what I get for skimping, right?” Touka stuck her tongue out in a playful yet bashful manner, an action uncharacteristically cute for the person who had just crushed Shizuku with her fiendish strength. “I’m surprised, though. I’ve seen Stella’s face in the news so many times, but you’re the legendary Ikki Kurogane? We’ve met at a rather awkward time.”

That awkwardness was presumably because of what had happened with Shizuku, but Ikki shook his head in response.

“A battle’s a battle. Shizuku gave it all she had and fought a good fight. Likewise, you took up the gauntlet and fought in good faith. To me, that’s all that matters. In fact, I’m grateful that you fought so earnestly. I have no complaints whatsoever.”

That was Ikki’s honest opinion, completely devoid of falsehood.

“I agree with that, but there is one thing that bothers me.” Building off of what Ikki was saying, Stella stared at Touka with a dangerous look in her eyes. There was something she absolutely had to ask. “Touka, from what I’ve seen so far, you’re pretty much blind without your glasses, right? But you weren’t wearing glasses during your fight. Why is that? You were holding back, weren’t you?”

“N-Nuh-uh! That ain’t true!”

“Uh…?”

“What? Oh, u-um, no, that’s not true.” Touka must have been so shaken by Stella’s observation that she spoke in a strange way. She blushed as she rushed to correct herself, but it was far too late. Regardless, she cleared her throat and returned to her usual cadence. “Actually, it’s the exact opposite. I expected Shizuku to be a very difficult foe to deal with, so I couldn’t go into battle with my glasses on—I intentionally made my vision worse to boost the accuracy of my perception. If I didn’t, someone like her would have been tough going.”

“‘Perception’? What does perception have to do with this?”

“When I deprive myself of vision, I become able to sense the impulses in others’ bodies. That’s just one application of my abilities as a user of electricity.

“Humans are essentially living precision instruments. Their actions are controlled purely by impulses sent from the brain, so the ability to sense those impulses is incredibly useful; it means knowing a person’s next actions. Signals sent to the muscles that control their eyes tell where their vision is directed, hormones secreted by the pituitary gland reveal their mental state—all of that and more can be understood from reading them.

“The information you glean from impulses are your foe’s true intentions, and they’re impossible to fake. What is their mental state? What is the next action they plan to take? Limiting my vision gives me access to even more information than usual, so if I take off my glasses, it’s beyond simple to read and understand what my opponent is going to do. That means traps and ambushes don’t work on me.”

“I see. That’s how you dodged Shizuku’s ambush, then?”

Touka nodded in affirmation.

“That’s one of my Noble Arts: Reverse Sight. I suppose it’s not too unlike the Worst One’s Perfect Vision, though yours is the result of insight while mine is just a bit of cunning. Anyway, rest assured that I wasn’t going easy on her by any means.”

“Hmm… I see,” Stella replied. “Sorry I doubted you.”

“Pay it no mind. Heehee.”

“You seem happy.”

“I was just thinking about how thoughtful you are toward your friends.”

Stella’s cheeks turned so red that they were on fire.

“What?! Sh-She and I are not friends!”

“Oh? Is that so?”

“I disagree. You two get along really well.”

“You too, Ikki?! God, who even cares?!”

She huffed and turned away from Ikki, rushing ahead alone.

Does she know where the student council room is?

She didn’t have any idea; she was probably waiting for them just behind that corner. Instead of following her, though, Ikki turned to face Touka.

“By the way, are you sure about that?”

“About what?”

“You just told us everything about your ability. We don’t have that many selection battles left, but there’s still a chance one of us might be pitted against you.”

“It doesn’t matter to me. I won’t lose just because you know how Reverse Sight works.”

“Ngh!”

As if he’d been struck by lightning, a shudder ran from Ikki’s head to his toes. Behind Touka’s mature, tranquil smile, he saw a dangerous twinkle deep in her eye, like light reflecting from the tip of a blade. It was unmistakable proof that she was the Raikiri, with absolute confidence in her own abilities and the thirst for battle with ever-stronger opponents. She was cut from the same cloth as Ikki and Stella, her eyes burning with confidence and ambition.

…Haha.

Looking at her, Ikki thought that they might just become great friends. It made him wish more than ever that he would get the chance to fight her one day.

◆◇◆◇◆

After five minutes of walking, Ikki and the gang arrived in front of the student council room.

“Whew, finally. It’s such a long walk to the council room.”

“Thank you both. You’re free to come in and enjoy some tea, if you’d like. Toutokubara just brought us some lovely tea leaves yesterday.”

“I’d be glad to. How about you, Stella?”

“Sure. I’m parched.”

“Please, come on in. Hnghyu!”

Touka opened the door to the council room and stepped forward to guide the two inside, when her toe caught on something heavy, causing her to fall forward dramatically. She fell more or less face-first, leaving her rear pointing directly toward Ikki and Stella and her underwear fully exposed. Touka’s skirt was doing a poor job today, indeed.

“Y’know, Ikki, we could put advertisements on her underwear and make a killing.”

“That’s an interesting idea.”

“Oww… What’s it this time?” Once again mixing up her words in surprise at the sudden trap, Touka stood up and looked at the council room again, going pale as she did so. “Wh-What the heeeeell?!”

In the council room, everything was scattered about: every book from every shelf, every item from every drawer. Amidst the chaos, Touka’s fellow council members were lined up together.

Secretary Ikazuchi Saijou was taking minutes with his surprisingly neat penmanship, while treasurer Kanata Toutokubara was bringing him tea. In contrast to the two members doing their jobs with due diligence, vice president Utakata Misogi was transfixed on a video game and general affairs manager Renren Tomaru was watching the screen with great interest. She wore only an athletic undershirt and panties, training with a chest expander in her immodest attire.