Chapter 18
“…And you?”
“I’m Miriam!”
At the prince’s slightly flustered question, Miriam shouted confidently with her arms folded.
“Yes. What did you mean by what you just said?”
“Exactly what I said!”
“M-Miriam…?”
I called Miriam in a trembling voice, flustered, but she barked at Maximilian as though she didn’t care in the slightest.
“If you want to fight Instructor Haru, you’ll have to get through her lackey—me—first!”
“…Is that something you discussed with Instructor Haru beforehand?”
“Uh, um….”
At Maximilian’s sharp question, Miriam glanced back at me.
Then she began winking furiously with one eye.
“…?”
As I mentally put up a question mark, Miriam seemed to make some arbitrary assumption, whipped her head forward again, nodded, and said,
“Yes!”
“…That certainly looked like you two had just coordinated that.”
“Well, whatever,” Maximilian muttered, then turned to Rex and said,
“Instructor Rex. Since she’s putting it that way, would that be all right?”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean, if you defeat this student named Miriam in a spar, would you allow me to cross swords with Instructor Haru?”
“Hmm.”
Rex stroked his chin as he looked from Maximilian to Miriam, then to me.
“I suppose that would be fine. Assuming Instructor Haru herself gives permission, of course….”
“Thank you.”
Maximilian bowed briefly, then spoke to me again.
“Instructor Haru, what do you think?”
“Uh, well….”
“I’m asking you this favor. Please.”
Though we were technically instructor and student, seeing the crown prince of a nation bow his head to me to make this request…
‘I feel like refusing would get me in trouble…?’
I took a quiet breath and nodded.
“…All right, Your Highness. If I defeat Miss Miriam, I’ll accept the spar.”
“Hmm. Thank you.”
Maximilian nodded and held out his hand to me.
Was he asking for a handshake? I tentatively held out both hands and watched his expression.
‘He doesn’t look very happy.’
Then, when I subtly withdrew one hand, this time…
‘His expression got brighter…?’
When I eventually shook his hand with one hand, Maximilian smiled and nodded.
“I look forward to it.”
Anyway, that made it two to two.
The students still without partners were Ayla and Igor from Class A, and Charlotte and Roxanna from our class.
That left two pairings…
“Instructor Rex.”
At that moment, Charlotte, who had merely been watching in silence, suddenly stepped forward.
“Could you pair Miss Ayla from Class A with Miss Roxanna from Class E as sparring partners?”
“Miss Ayla?”
At her words, Rex readily answered,
“If both students agree.”
“…Then conversely, if I spar with Mr. Igor, the remaining two will naturally be paired with each other?”
“I suppose they would?”
“Mr. Igor!”
Charlotte suddenly called out and approached the male student with the ponytail and glasses.
“Please make me your sparring opponent!”
“…I have no objection.”
Igor calmly asked in return,
“Is there any particular reason you’re so intent on pitting Ayla against Roxanna?”
“…Pardon?”
“Never mind. You don’t need to answer. I understand.”
He asked the question, then immediately answered himself with a shake of his head. Igor lightly shrugged and added to Charlotte,
“But don’t make the mistake of assuming Roxanna will have the advantage simply because that’s her specialty.”
“…How do you know that?”
“Ayla’s specialty isn’t merely derivative magic, you know.”
Instead of answering, Igor muttered meaningfully,
“There’s a reason she firmly holds on to second place despite being a user of cold magic, whose weaknesses are obvious.”
=
After all manner of talk and trouble, the bracket for the friendly match was complete.
First round, Karen Gatling versus Kariya.
Second round, Igor Ivanov versus Charlotte Valliere.
Third round, Ayla Lucilante versus Roxanna Gatling.
Fourth round, Maximilian Markard versus Miriam.
And the much-anticipated—though I wasn’t sure it would even happen, but had a feeling it probably would with a very high probability—fifth round, Maximilian Markard versus me.
‘How did it end up like this?’
Standing on the platform a short distance from the sparring grounds, I leaned halfway over the railing.
I was utterly spent, body and soul. Maybe it was because I hadn’t thrown myself into anything this energetically in quite a while.
Rex, who had been quietly watching me from nearby, suddenly spoke.
“Your bangs are a little messy, Haru….”
“…!”
-Tap.
Whether because I was startled or simply tired, I reflexively slapped Rex’s hand away hard.
“…Ah, no, that’s not what I meant.”
My heart sank. Belatedly flustered, I looked up at Rex.
Rex was smiling.
“You’re finally starting to seem like your old self.”
Rex muttered quietly. I couldn’t quite understand what he meant.
Whether he viewed my old self negatively or positively, it was a statement that made sense either way.
“…I’ll wait.”
Rex spoke to me in an almost muttering tone.
“Until you’re ready to talk about it yourself.”
“….”
“I think I was too hasty this morning.”
His words seemed to put some distance between us, and my inexplicably buoyant mood sank flat.
‘No. He’s not putting distance between us. He’s just worried about me—what kind of rotten thought is this?’
I carefully rubbed the hand that had slapped Rex’s arm and muttered inwardly,
‘…Right. For now, I should focus on the children’s sparring.’
I was an instructor at Magnus Academy, and this was, after all, working hours.
I shook off my thoughts and focused on the students before me.
Class A’s Karen Gatling versus Class E’s Kariya.
Kariya had just sparred with me, so I said we could postpone his match if he was tired, but…
‘No, I’m fine.’
Kariya refused. Did he want to fight that badly?
Anyway. According to Karen, they were almost evenly matched.
Karen claimed that she had lost their first spar because she had let her guard down. Kariya didn’t seem to disagree with her, either.
If that claim was true, then she was certainly an opponent Kariya couldn’t afford to ignore.
‘But Kariya isn’t weak, either.’
If anything, he was exceptionally strong for a student his age. Strong enough that I could understand why he had become so arrogant.
But the same was true of Karen.
-Whistle!!
Rex blew his whistle. Kariya kicked off the dirt and charged.
Standing still, Karen glared straight at him as he rushed forward and drew up her mana.
Karen used barrage magic.
A derivative of orthodox fire magic, it was an extremely destructive form of magic that pushed the aggressiveness and destructive power of fire magic—already among the more offensive attributes—to an extreme.
And true to the nature of the magic passed down through the generations, the people of the Gatling family were all said to have fiery tempers and impulsive dispositions.
Karen was no different. She was nothing like the timid, slow-moving Roxanna.
Dozens of fireballs appeared simultaneously around the wide-eyed Karen. The flames burned brightly, as though someone had lit candles, and began circling her at a threatening speed like satellites orbiting a planet.
-Boom!!
Three of the rapidly rotating fireballs popped and split into thousands of tiny embers.
‘So that’s how you can apply a splitting formula.’
I had only heard about barrage magic and had never seen it in person, so I became engrossed in her magic, briefly forgetting that this was a spar between students.
Even each tiny ember contained firepower equal to that of a large fireball.
‘Are those fireballs something like Stock or Memorize?’
She loaded multiple fireballs in advance, then split them apart when attacking to boost their firepower all at once.
The name barrage magic suited it perfectly.
Kariya, meanwhile, had not activated any magic at all, relying solely on the chain swords in his hands.
The magic Kariya used was defensive magic, a branch of non-elemental magic.
It could wrap an invisible barrier around the user to reduce damage, or, when highly skilled, sharply coat a weapon in a barrier and cut down an opponent without letting the blade itself make contact.
-Bang!!
Kariya gripped the middle of the long chain rather than the hilt and spun the sword around like a lasso. Karen fired thousands of embers at him as he charged with the spinning blade blocking his front like a propeller.
-KRA-KA-BOOM!!!
A huge amount of pitch-black smoke billowed up around Kariya.
Hiding in the rising smoke, Kariya taunted her,
“The same tactic as last time. Don’t you know how to learn?”
But Karen merely gave a light scoff, gathered her mana all at once, and retorted,
“The one who’s the same as last time is you!”
Dozens of fireballs circling Karen burst simultaneously with a series of pops.
The flames exploded all at once, rapidly swelling in size before twisting like a braided pastry and converging on a single point.
-Fwoooosh!!!
Then they transformed into a gigantic pillar of fire, rising as it whipped up a powerful gust.
Even the pitch-black smoke Kariya had hidden in was driven away by the hot wind and scattered without a trace.
Kariya’s position was exposed in an instant. Squinting against the hot wind beating against his face, he muttered,
“What a pathetic little trick…!”
“A little trick? A little trick?!”
Karen laughed maniacally and shouted at Kariya as he clicked his tongue,
“Yeah? Let’s see you call this a little trick too──”
-Creeeak…!!
The pillar of fire that had risen twisted like a rope and took the shape of something.
“A dragon…?!”
“Whoa, that’s awesome!”
Miriam, who had been watching the spar, shouted innocently.
The pillar of fire, its tip transformed into a dragon’s head, bent like taffy and shot toward Kariya.
“──Let’s see if you can call this a little trick!!”
Violent mana ran wild around Karen as she roared in a voice full of spite.
Mana was affected by the user’s emotional state. Her spiteful voice and the mana running wild around her both made that clear. She must have been extremely furious about losing to Kariya once.
“You country bumpkin from the East who won by pure luck!!”
If Kariya’s victory had truly been nothing but luck, as she claimed, then there was no way he could overcome this attack. Karen probably believed that as well, which was why she had unleashed such a massive offensive spell.
Fire magic was honest. The stronger the magic’s destructive power, the longer the delay suffered by the caster immediately after using it.
Barrage magic, which inherited the traits of fire magic in an even more extreme form, would be even more so.
And the magic Karen had just used was a grand spell at the threshold of the ‘ultimate’ within barrage magic.
If this spar had not been taking place inside the boundary stone, it would have been the kind of magic where an instant death would be entirely unsurprising.
But at least, based on the clash of swords I had had with him,
Kariya was absolutely not someone who had become strong through luck alone.
“…Phewww.”
Kariya exhaled quietly. Dense mana began layering thickly over the chain swords in both his hands.
Three layers, then six, then twelve. He wrapped layer after layer of sharply angled defensive barriers around the blades, until blue mana seemed to cling to them.
As the enormous fire dragon charged toward him with its jaws open, Kariya swung the swords in both hands in a slanted cross.
-Fwoooosh!!!!
The fire dragon that had charged in so boldly was split into four.
So cleanly that it was almost absurdly anticlimactic.
“What….”
Karen stood there with her mouth hanging open, unable to speak. In the midst of the dispersing flames, Kariya, who had taken the full force of the four-way split, raised his head.
“I told you.”
-Whoosh…!
With a swing, Kariya extinguished the flames clinging to his blades and said quietly,
“A little trick.”