Jill clenched her fist at what she saw.  A Blue Dragon Class unit was abandoning the attacked clock tower and trying to link up with the left unit while a Gold Dragon Class unit charged at them.

Noin seemed to be commanding the Gold Dragon Class, but none of the flags they carried were necessarily the real one.

“Roger-sensei, what do you think?  Regarding the whereabouts of the Gold Dragon Class’s flag.”
“Nn?  When all’s said and done, the safest place is probably with Class Leader Noin.  I kind of think it might unexpectedly be the real one.  How do you see it, Jill-sensei?”

“Damn,” she muttered in quiet frustration.  She didn’t know.

If her former adjutant were with her, he might have been able to see through Hades’s strategy, but she herself could not.  However, Lutiya was not among the students where the fighting had begun.  He might have come up with a strategy of some sort.  At the very least, he was definitely trying to hide the flag.

Her student— Lutiya, was properly thinking.  The ones meant to protect the flag at the clock tower were all main-force members of the Blue Dragon Class.  Their numbers were clearly inferior, and they were being declared eliminated one after the other, but the losses on Gold Dragon Class’s side seemed greater.  With good coordination, they were able to prolong the battle as they escaped.

Then finally, in a flanking move, the left unit of the Blue Dragon Class appeared.

“Alright, with this we still—!”

The moment Jill clenched her fist, magical projectiles flew at the left unit from another direction.  Roger made a bitter expression.

“So they still had another detachment left, the Gold Dragon Class.”
“But they shouldn’t enough magical power left to fire a second volley… right!?”
“Except they might still have enough stamina to run around with their flags.”

Furthermore, the Blue Dragon Class no longer had any forces to spare for searching.

Noin might have come to the same conclusion.  Instead of commanding from the back like he had been, he moved.  The Blue Dragon Class students who had been split apart by the unexpected magic projectile attack couldn’t fix their stances in time and were cut down one after another by Noin who was charging alone.

At this rate…

As Jill stood up, Lutiya shot into her field of view like a bullet from the shadows.  He was perfectly set to strike Noin from behind.  He has him.

For an instant, Noin’s gaze shifted as if to confirm whether or not Lutiya was carrying the flag, and that created an opening.

Lutiya didn’t aim for the flag Noin was holding.  Conversely, Noin struck for the flag hanging at Lutiya’s waist.

“Class Leader Noin!”
“Lutiya!”

As the other students and spectators watched, breaths held, Noin’s school emblem and the flag Lutiya had been holding were each torn apart.

However, the signal for the end of the match did not sound.

“…A fake… flag.”

A piece of cloth— probably torn from a blue La Baia Military Academy uniform—

tied to a stick picked up from somewhere so that it would resemble a flag, was pierced by Noin’s sword.

Lutiya ignored Noin, who was no longer able to move after having his school emblem pierced, and cut off the flag he carried at his waist.  Despite that, there was no signal sounding off the end of the match.  It too was fake.

In its place, a ruling descended from above.

“Class Leader Noin, eliminated.  Removed from the field!”

Cheers rose from both the Blue Dragon Class and the spectator seats.  Noin’s elimination was decisive.  In contrast, the Blue Dragon Class still had Lutiya.

Jill clenched her fists.

With this, we can still turn it around and—

Suddenly, the trumpet signaling the end of the match blared.

As Jill’s gaze wandered about in confusion, the referee, Elynsia, shouted.

“The magical power of the Blue Dragon Class’s flag has ceased!  The Gold Dragon Class is victorious!”

The spectator stands fell silent, as if cold water had been thrown over them.

■

The sound of defeat came just as Lutiya was about to shout his next order.  The other students still hadn’t grasped the result.

Lutiya, shoulders heaving as he panted, looked back at Noin.  A quick scan of the battlefield revealed a Gold Dragon Class student whose face he hadn’t seen.

“…You, don’t tell me… you had someone tail me?”

Noin brushed the dust from his right arm where his school emblem had been pierced and smiled back.

“I figured that if you were moving away from the clock tower, then you’d either leave the flag there or hide it.  None of the escaping students were carrying a flag, so that meant either you had it, you hide it somewhere, or you deliberately left it behind at the clock tower.”

“But no one attacked me when I was alone!”
“I was certain you’d come to stop me, so I ordered everyone to wait for a situation where the flag could definitely be destroyed.”

In other words, Noin had also used himself as a disposable piece.

“So, you saw through everything…”
“Not exactly, I hesitated over aming for your school emblem or your flag.  Although, regardless of whether your flag was real or fake, the fact that you were the one carrying it was the biggest problem.  Hence, I prioritized the flag. You?”
“Since I didn’t know where the flag was, taking you down was the top priority!  Once you were crushed, your flag would get destroyed soon after.”

Noin’s gaze shifted to the fake flags lying on the ground.

“And if this were an actual war, it’d be the same as taking the commander’s head.  Even if we ended up taking each other out, taking you down would make it easier to recover… What?”
“Nothing… just, deep down I might have always wanted to try having this sort of conversation with you.”
“Ha?  What kind of conversation are you talking about?”
“A post-battle review. —Not just this one, but the previous too.  There was never any time for it.”
“We can do them from now on, arh, damn it!  This is so frustrating!”

Noin blinked in surprise at Lutiya’s shout, then burst out laughing.

“What?  What’s so funny?”
“N-no. Just, yeah, I’m happy we won.  Even though nobody really wanted the Gold Dragon Class to win anymore, I wonder if we managed to clear away our disgrace.”
“Ha~~?  Are you an honor student?  You’re ticking me off!”

Lutiya tried to kick him, but Noin dodged.

“Ahh, we lost!”
“We won, yeaaaaaaaah!”
“Ehhhh, no way… We seriously lost?  How?”

Cries began to rise up from the other students who finally understood the situation.  Noin lightly slapped Lutiya’s shoulder.

“Let’s go.  Our teachers must be waiting too.”
“Geh, right.  Jill-sensei is going to tell me off.”
“You’ll probably be fine.  If anything, I get the feeling we’re the ones who’ll be getting scolded for using such a cowardly strategy.”

Lutiya thinks, I suppose there are people who would say that, but Noin’s tone and face both express amusement.  His personality is definitely getting worse.  No doubt that older brother with a personality twisted to an unfathomable degree has influenced him.

“Come to think of it, where was the Gold Dragon Class’s flag—”
“Congratulations, this was very educational for me as well WHAT WAS THAT STRATEGY— — — — — — — — — —!!”

From the spectator seats, which were only just beginning to stir, a bellow of tremendous volume resounded.  There was no need to even wonder whose voice that belonged to.

“What kind of mindset leads to you having your students take actions resembling a suicide charge!?”
“It wasn’t a suicide charge. It was a tactic for vic— wai— you’re strangling me, Jill, my neck! Rave, don’t run away!”
“Please explain it to me, how did you entice them!”
“I didn’t entice them, that’s disreputable!”

“…Should we go stop them?”
“…what a pain…”

He thought, Why should I do it?  But once Noin took the first few steps, he felt like going too.  It made him think, Having friends really is strange.

---

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