The entire audience watched the two elves in complete silence. The emotions radiating from both of them were far too intense for anyone to dare utter even a single word.
Aurola finally returned to the present, her eyes now overflowing with even more tears, and looked once again at her student, who was slowly walking toward her.
Agratà's body was covered in wounds that were genuinely life-threatening. Her clothes were completely soaked with blood, and several of her broken bones had pierced through her skin, leaving them horrifyingly visible.
Aurola's face twisted into an expression of extreme bitterness.
Then, in a voice filled with pain and concern, she finally answered Agratà's question.
"Yes, it's true—I hate practicing martial arts!! And the only reason I decided to practice them the way I do now is because of what happened to my brother… But he died because of me! Because I hadn't trained enough!!!! So the least I can do for him and for my father is carry on my brother's dream and the dream my father had for him. That means dedicating my entire life to the Leaf Falling from the Tree style. And I still haven't done enough. As long as I'm alive, I won't have done enough! So please, Agratà, give up—I haven't—"
"NO!!"
Agratà's sudden shout interrupted her master.
"No, Master, I won't give up. I know perfectly well that you've undoubtedly done enough. So all I have to do is defeat you and force you to understand that…" After that first powerful "no," her voice had become incredibly faint.
"But it seems I'm still not able to defeat you the conventional way, so I'll have to do it another way…" the terribly battered elf added.
No matter how much pain she was clearly experiencing, Agratà never stopped walking. And somehow, she never stopped smiling.
Aurola, meanwhile, didn't move at all.
She remained completely motionless, tears streaming down her face as she watched her student slowly approach. Agratà current physical condition, combined with Agratà words and everything those words had awakened inside her, had completely paralyzed her. The Minister of Education had absolutely no idea what to do.
Because of that hesitation, even though Agratà was advancing extremely slowly, she had nearly reached her beloved teacher.
Then, immediately afterward, Agratà finally entered the range of Aurola's fists. And Aurola made her decision.
"I'm sorry, Agratà…"
Her left arm suddenly shot forward.
It was an incredibly fast punch, although not a particularly powerful one.
Aurola had finally decided to knock her student unconscious. She simply couldn't bear to watch Agratà continue suffering like this, but at the same time, some part of her still couldn't bring herself to surrender her title. Obviously, she carefully avoided using enough force to cause permanent damage—or, even worse, to kill her student. That was why she had precisely calculated both the speed and power of the punch. It was fast enough that Agratà, in her current condition, should have been completely incapable of reacting to it. Yet it was slow enough that, had she been in normal condition, she would have been able to dodge it. Any greater speed would have risked causing far too much damage.
So the punch flew forward, moving at tremendous speed toward Agratà's face.
Closer.
Closer.
And then, a fraction of a second before impact—
The impossible happened.
Aurola's fist stopped.
Agratà had somehow managed to grab her teacher's arm and halt the punch just before it struck her face. She didn't have enough strength left to hold Aurola for long.
But she had stopped it.
'I'm about to be thrown,' Aurola thought immediately, instinctively bracing herself for the violent impact of her body slamming against the arena floor.
But that impact never came.
Instead, what she felt was warmth. The warmth of another person's body.
Both Aurola and the entire audience stared in complete shock.
Rather than using the leverage she had gained to throw her master onto the ground, Agratà had used it to pull Aurola toward herself and wrap her in a gentle embrace.
"What…?" Aurola whispered.
Her voice was confused and so faint that it was barely audible.
"Master Aurola, I've never had a real family, so I can't pretend that I fully understand how you feel…" Agratà began, her voice overflowing with kindness and respect. "But considering everything you've told me about your brother and father, and what kind of people they were before your brother died …"
As she spoke, she held her crying master even more tightly, though her embrace remained incredibly gentle.
"I'm more than certain that, if they could see you now, they would tell you that you've already done enough. After all, you are, without a doubt, one of the greatest practitioner of the Falling Leaf Style who has ever lived."
Agratà paused for a moment to gather what little strength she had left.
"And those words aren't coming only from us, your students. I spoke with Master Nageio. When I asked him what he thought about you, he told me almost exactly the same thing I just said. In addition he called you the greatest student he had ever taught… and said he was sorry that he had never truly managed to help you."
'No, Master Nageio… The regret should be mine for making you feel guilty over my problems…' Aurola thought.
"B-but how c-can you possibly be s-sure that's w-what they would t-truly think?" the Minister of Education asked. Her entire voice trembled violently.
"Of course, I can't guarantee one hundred percent that this is truly what your father and brother would think," Agratà replied. "After all, only the gods can truly know the thoughts of the dead."
One of Agratà's hands slowly rose and rested gently on Aurola's head.
"But is being absolutely certain really that important?"
For a moment, an old memory flashed through Aurola's mind. She saw her father gently stroking her head after she had accidentally torn one of her favorite books.
The memory struck her with such force that the tears already streaming down her face began falling even more freely.
"After all, it was you who taught me that I don't always have to do exactly what my family expects of me," Agratà continued. "And that's why you told me I didn't have to smile all the time when I wasn't actually happy."
Her own smile somehow remained.
"Even now, I still find it difficult not to smile constantly. But I can promise you that the reason is because I'm almost always genuinely happy now. And that's only because of you, Master Aurola…"
Another memory flashed through Aurola's mind. This one came from more than fifty years earlier.
She saw herself standing just outside an alley, with one arm embracing a little elf girl with a empty smile on her face, while her free hand gently stroked the girl's head.
But Aurola still couldn't say anything.
"So, Master Aurola…" Agratà continued, her voice powerful despite how faint it had become, "aren't your master's words enough? Aren't the words of all his students enough? Isn't even my happiness enough to prove that you've done enough?"
Her embrace tightened slightly.
"Aren't all of those things enough to make you understand that you don't have to feel guilty for doing what you truly want to do?"
At that instant, Aurola's tear-filled eyes widened.
Her entire life since moving to the capital seemed to flash before her.
She remembered all the rigorous yet gentle training she had endured under Master Nageio.
She remembered the day he entrusted her with the title of Grand Master.
She remembered every martial arts tournament she had won for the dojo.
She remembered Marco—now an old man—thanking her one last time for entrusting him with the dojo in her home village.
She remembered the countless students who had thanked her after their training sessions, exhausted but wearing deeply satisfied smiles.
She remembered every compliment she had ever received from her queen and her fellow ministers.
And above all else, she remembered every genuine smile of pure happiness ever shown to her by the elf girl she had adopted.
Then, finally, something else appeared in her mind.
A vision. Or, much more likely, a simple illusion created by her overwhelmed mind.
Her late brother stood inside the dojo that still remained in their hometown.
He was smiling and looking directly at Aurola with a gentle smile of his own, his cheeks slightly red with embarrassment. Beside him stood their father,
Then he spoke.
His voice was exactly as gentle as she remembered it—the voice that had continued echoing inside her mind even hundreds of years after the last time she had actually heard it.
"Aurola, thank you so much for fulfilling my dream in my place. You've been amazing. But please, focus on your own dream now. Because without a doubt, you've done enough… You deserve it."
Meanwhile, the illusion of her father remained silent beside him. For several seconds, he simply looked at her. Then his mouth opened. Only a single word came out.
"I'm sorry."
And with that, Aurola's consciousness snapped back to reality.
'What I just saw was probably nothing more than an illusion created by my own mind…' she thought as tears continued flowing down her cheeks.
For several more seconds, she simply allowed herself to remain wrapped in the warmth of her student's embrace.
Slowly, her tears finally stopped.
"But whether they were real or not… those illusions—and above all, you, Agratà—are right…" Aurola finally said, still resting in her student's arms.
Her voice was gentle.
"Even if this isn't enough to erase my guilt completely, I can no longer deny that I've done enough."
She took a trembling breath.
"I am, without a doubt, standing in a position that neither my brother nor my father probably ever imagined they could reach. And above all, if what you're saying is true—if I really am responsible for all those smiles, if I truly gave you and my other students that happiness through my work as a martial arts teacher—then I can't help but feel satisfied."
A faint melancholy remained in Aurola's voice. But something else was there now too. Relief.
"So I admit it. Aurola Battista, Grand Master of the Style of the Leaf Falling from the Tree, has done enough!"
For the first time, she spoke those words aloud.
"And for that reason, I hereby appoint my greatest student, Agratà—and at the same time my def—"
"The winner of this match is Minister of Education Aurola Battista!"
Pinusal's authoritative voice suddenly rang through the arena, cutting Aurola off.
"What?! Why did you do that, Mr. Pinusal? I was about to surrender!" Aurola protested, her face showing both confusion and a hint of anger. "Even though she didn't defeat me physically, Agratà deserves this victory!"
"Minister Aurola," the ancient referee replied calmly and professionally, "I advise you to take a closer look at Minister Agratà."
For a moment, Aurola stared at Pinusal in confusion.
Then she did exactly as he suggested.
And immediately, she understood.
A small smile appeared on her face.
"It looks like I'll be the one moving forward in this tournament after all, Agratà," Aurola whispered softly into her student's ear. "But don't worry. As far as I'm concerned, you won this match."
Her smile grew slightly.
"So the title of Grand Master is already yours… I can't wait to tell you that as soon as you wake up."
She knew, of course, that her beloved student couldn't hear her anymore. Agratà had lost consciousness.
Because of the horrific injuries she had sustained throughout the match, she had finally passed out not long after she began gently stroking her master's head.
The only reason Aurola hadn't noticed until Pinusal pointed it out was almost unbelievable. Even after losing consciousness, Agratà's determination to help her teacher had been so overwhelming that her arms had never loosened. She had never stopped hugging her.