Chapter 14
“So... you're saying I should learn by getting hit?”
I thought I was hearing things.
No way, was that really something a dean should say to a student?
“Ohoho! That's right. You have to learn it with your body for it to stick longer... no, wait. I didn't mean learn by getting hit—I meant let's spar, spar!”
The dean looked awkwardly away, waving her hand.
But it was already too late. I'd already heard their master's true intentions.
Wow, talk about a medieval fantasy world—they're still doing this barbaric, punishment-centered education.
Training that forces you to grind your body into shape, all because physical strength is supposedly fundamental.
There's nothing more primitive and barbaric than this.
Come to think of it, she barged into my private room without warning, too.
I have no idea where student rights went.
Seeing my disgusted reaction, the dean looked genuinely flustered.
But only for a moment; she soon recomposed herself and changed the subject.
“Since Student Lunaris has come to the Academy, your goal is graduation anyway, isn't it?”
“Well, that's true.”
“Then you'll eventually need to earn the required credits to graduate. Do you know how many credits this class is worth?”
“...?”
“A full four credits. That's half of the major credits you need to earn in a single semester.”
Wow, it was that many?
When I showed interest, the dean gave a meaningful smile and suddenly made me an offer.
“If Student Lunaris beats me in a spar, I'll deduct four credits every semester until graduation. A special exemption under the dean's authority.”
“...!”
“Of course, the grades for those four credits will be treated as full marks.”
It felt like I'd been jolted wide awake.
It was a chance for Thursday, the worst day of the week, to be reborn as the best.
But once I came to my senses and thought it over carefully, it seemed realistically impossible for me to beat the dean, the archmage, as I was now.
“Then what if I lose? Is there anything I have to do?”
“Nothing. Of course, until the student wins, you'll still have to attend my special lecture every Thursday.”
Thinking about the fact that I'd have to attend class anyway, it was basically the same as no risk at all.
“Oh, and unless something special comes up, classes will keep being held like this as sparring sessions.”
The dean continued, smiling.
“If you beat me even once before graduation, then from that moment on, class is over for you. How about it? Isn't that really unprecedented?”
“That is certainly a good condition.”
I slowly pulled back the covers.
“By the way, are there rules for the spar? Or... can I play a little rough?”
And then I sat down beside the dean.
“Do as you like. You can set rules if you want, and it doesn't matter if you use any means necessary.”
The moment the dean gave her permission.
I immediately drew up the mana in my body.
In an instant, the air in the room grew heavy.
“Then I'll do as I please.”
There was a saying in the world I used to live in.
First strike wins.
“Hold on a second?!”
An embarrassed look appeared on Dean Raymond's face, now floating there under my telekinetic magic.
“Looks like you won't need to show up starting next week.”
I smiled brightly.
And just like that, I sent the dean flying out of the room.
*
-KWAANG!!
With a sharp boom, Dean Raymond's body was slammed roughly to the floor.
“Aaah!”
“W-what happened?!”
The students who happened to be passing through the corridor on their way to the lecture hall screamed and backed away.
Amid the murmuring students, Linea Hall's pro maids were quickly dispatched to the scene.
Once they grasped the situation, the maids immediately evacuated the students outside and began clearing the area.
And just like that, the corridor became the battlefield of two high-ranking mages.
“Ugh...!”
The moment Dean Raymond tried to steady herself and get back on her feet.
The air began to press heavily on her body.
Gravity-manipulation magic?
No. This was telekinetic magic used to manipulate the air itself and press it down directly.
From the broken doorway, a girl came trotting out.
Her messy ash-gray hair stuck out in all directions.
In pajamas, clutching an armful of pillows to her chest, she looked absurdly languid.
The culprit behind all this—Lunaris—let out a big, drawn-out yawn and muttered.
“Come to think of it, we never set the win condition.”
She looked down at Dean Raymond with half-lidded eyes and continued in a sleep-roughened voice.
“Should we make it so that you lose once you can't use magic anymore?”
Just like now.
Lunaris intended to end the magic duel right there.
If she didn't admit defeat, then—
Twisting a wrist a little wouldn't be too much, would it?
“Aha... ahaha! Nice. That condition... isn't bad at all.”
Dean Raymond laughed through gritted teeth.
“For the record, I... can still do more, you know?”
A halo of light burst out explosively around her.
It was a brute-force method that could hardly even be called magic—just expelling the mana inside her body.
I don't especially like this kind of thing, but it couldn't be helped.
Otherwise, there was no way out of this crisis.
The instant Dean Raymond got to her feet, Lunaris's eyes flashed coldly.
Shattered wooden pieces and broken bricks flew toward Dean Raymond.
As if she would never let go of the initiative she had seized with the ambush, she relentlessly drove her opponent back.
Dean Raymond quickly swept both hands through the air.
As a turquoise magic circle appeared, a transparent barrier spread out around her.
The fragments struck the multilayered shield and crumbled.
In no time, dust and debris settled around the two of them like snow.
“By the way, both during the interview and now, why do you only use telekinesis magic, Student?”
Dean Raymond asked, pretending to be relaxed.
“If we keep up this kind of war of attrition, it'll be the student's mana that runs out first, you know?”
“I can't deal with the cleanup afterward.”
Lunaris shrugged and said.
“If I mess up and blow up all of Linea Hall, that'd be a problem, wouldn't it?”
There was no hidden meaning. She was just stating the facts.
The other spells besides telekinesis don't even let me control their power properly, so what if I use one wrong and blow up my beloved bed?
But to Dean Raymond's ears, it oddly sounded like a challenge.
-Do you really think you can handle my magic?
It was a remark that scratched right at her pride.
The corner of her lips curled upward.
“Go ahead, run wild all you want. Do you think I can't block a single spell from a student?”
“...Really?”
“If anything goes wrong, I'll take full responsibility.”
After thinking it over for a moment, Lunaris slowly nodded.
“Then I won't hold back.”
The fragments that had been floating in the air dropped to the floor with soft thuds.
The pressure of mana that had been making the air tremble vanished.
For an instant, the tension eased.
But Dean Raymond felt uneasy instead.
She swallowed hard.
For some reason, a chill ran down her spine.
Her anxiety lasted only a moment before she steeled herself.
How amazing could a spell really be? She didn't have a wand, and she wasn't using a gem catalyst or anything.
The only variable was whether she'd chant a long incantation, and that could be handled by chanting along with her.
Then, a frigid chill swirled around Lunaris.
Her ash-gray hair fluttered in the blue glow of mana.
Above her head, beneath the dormitory's high ceiling, magic circles began appearing one by one.
Magic circles with intricate patterns stacked and overlapped.
The surrounding temperature dropped in an instant.
The entire dormitory froze over, as if it had become the dead of winter.
The very spell that had wiped out the wyvern pack was about to be unleashed once more.
“No, how is that even an advanced spell...!”
Then Dean Raymond suddenly noticed the pillow Lunaris was hugging tightly.
“C-could that be a magic tool?!”
No.
It was just an ordinary comfort pillow.
“Whatever it is... this is definitely dangerous.”
Dean Raymond reached deep into the sleeve of her coat and pulled out a slender, silver-inlaid staff.
“O primal fire, appear here in accordance with the vow we shared!”
The first condition for being called an archmage was to make contracts with primordial spirits and reliably wield top-tier magic.
Dean Raymond was one of the few mages who had contracted with all of the primordial spirits of the four basic elements.
-Fwoooosh!
A flame sprang up behind Dean Raymond.
At first, it was nothing more than a palm-sized ember.
Soon it wriggled and swelled like a giant snake.
In an instant, it became a massive storm of fire and swept forward.
The flames devoured the oxygen.
The heat warped the air.
At the same time, the ceiling turned blue.
Just when it seemed as if a blizzard had filled the space.
Chunks of ice poured down from the center of the magic circle.
Flame and ice mixed together.
A blinding flash burst.
Bone-chilling cold and searing heat tangled together.
-Kzzzzt!
Then hot steam burst up as if exploding.
-KWAAAANG!!
A shockwave swept through the main hall along with a deafening roar that seemed to tear the ears apart.
Amid the storming surge of mana, shattered furniture and bricks flew all over the place.
How much time had passed?
At last, the clash of fire and ice slowly began to subside.
The flames surrounding Dean Raymond gradually lost strength and died down.
The magic circles floating above Lunaris's head also lost their light and faded away.
The storm-like vortex of mana settled, and only the smoke left by the blazing flames and pale frost filled the space.
When the smoke cleared, the disastrous state of the main hall was revealed.
The walls all around had frozen, then melted away into deep gouges, and the floor was a mess of debris and frost.
At the center of the space, amid scorch marks and frost.
Lunaris and Raymond stood facing each other, both gasping for breath.
Sparks crackled like flames around Lunaris's body.
Residual mana that hadn't been used in magic was leaking out.
“Do you have any other spells, Student Lunaris?”
Dean Raymond asked, brushing away the drifting smoke with a gesture.
Her carefully composed voice was thick with fatigue.
Honestly, I'm reaching my limit.
I already blasted my mana out just to break free of the telekinetic magic pressing down on my body.
And now I've even manifested a primordial spirit, so I'm completely drained.
Any more than this is impossible...
Please, say it's over...!!
“I think... I can still do a little more.”
Flames flickered and rose above Lunaris's slender palm.
Dean Raymond gave a start and straightened her stance.
Her mind started spinning.
She felt dizzy, as if the world before her were going dark.