Reincarnated as an Antagonist

Chapter 6 - The Festival

"Alright class, as you know our academy's annual festival is after school! There will be multiple activities and booths you can visit, as well as the highlight of our festival, the Combat tournament!" The teacher exclaimed.

The class cheered in excitement, some starting to loudly chat with their friends.

Today was the day of Eden's Academy's yearly festival. It's insanely popular and while the attendance fee is quite expensive, it's free to the students and the students' families, along with staff and such. Attendance is optional but anyone who'd miss the festival without good reason would practically be out of their mind. As the principal's son Claude has to go, but he isn't complaining about it.

Like he mentioned before, this festival, more specifically one of the activities being held known as the Combat Tournament, was a very important---if not the most important event in the original novel.

It was basically a competition where each contestant had to fight in a large coliseum with another contestant until one of them surrendered or couldn't fight anymore. The winner of each fight would move up until eventually the two final contestants faced off in battle.

In the original novel, the two final contestants were of course the protagonist and the original Claude Everly. There are multiple fighting techniques that can be used as there really isn't any limit, weapons are included and if one chose to not use a weapon then they'd still have to fight someone who did have a weapon. Magic is also an option as it does exist in this world, but it can only be used to an extent to avoid as much collateral damage as possible.

Both the original Claude and the protagonist were swordsmen and extraordinary ones at that, both could be considered prodigies for their age. Now the question is, if they were so evenly matched then how did the protagonist win? Well that's easy, it's because the protagonist is something called an enchanted swordsman. Enchanted swordsmen are exactly what the name means, swordsmen who can also use magic.

Magic is not a rare thing in this world, it's actually quite normal. It's more common if anything and unless you have a natural talent for it, it's insanely hard to use. Most people have the capability for magic but simply don't know how to control it and are therefore unable to use it.

There's a lot of steps that goes to conjuring magic just so that it could manifest in the first place, and most don't want to put in that much work, or simply don't have the time nor patience for it.

Unlike the protagonist, the original Claude was only a normal swordsman. It's hinted that the original Claude couldn't use magic at all before the deal he made unlike his older brother Louis, who was also an enchanted swordsman.

While the fight between the original Claude and the protagonist started out in Claude's favor, the protagonist was able to overpower him by revealing his mage-like abilities. This was the event that triggered not only the protagonist's new reputation and popularity, but also the event that really sent the original Claude into a jealous rage.

Imagine being Claude Everly, who had spent his entire life being admired and respected by everyone except the one person who mattered the most. Not matter how much praise he got it was never enough, he needed more because he assumed he needed more to feel right.

The original Claude Everly was beloved by everyone, so to have that taken away by some new kid who not a single person knew the name of beforehand? It was just the push he needed.

The antagonist had quite the depressing backstory, but his actions were explainable, not justifiable. He was scum through and through, end of statement. He refused to think any deeper than that.

The bell rang signifying lunchtime snapping him out of his thoughts. Students trail out of the classroom as Claude follows, heading to the cafeteria.

He walked through the hallways confidently and as calmly as he could, like he's taking a stroll through the garden.