Chapter 20
Roxanna Gatling.
A female student from the same Gatling family as Class A’s Karen Gatling, and ranked eighteenth in her year.
Her magic, like Karen’s, was barrage magic.
‘But her personality is completely different.’
I watched the petite girl nervously make her way into the sparring grounds.
‘A magic knight’s mana wavelength reflects the caster’s disposition.’
And Roxanna possessed a calm waveform utterly different from Karen’s.
‘How well can Roxanna, who is timid at a glance, possibly handle such fierce and aggressive fire magic…?’
Concern came before anticipation, but there was no way to know without seeing it for myself.
I drew a long, deep breath and turned toward the silver-haired girl walking in from the opposite side.
‘Ayla Lucilante. Second in the year rankings. The second daughter of the Lucilante family, and a user of cold magic, a derivative of standard water magic.’
Unlike lightning magic, I knew quite a bit about standard water magic. Sir Calmonte Logis’s primary magic had been standard water magic, after all.
‘But I know nothing about cold magic.’
At most, judging by its name, I could guess that it involved manipulating cold or ice.
Of course, since it was a traditional derivative magic passed down through a noble family for generations, it would have been stranger for an outsider like me to know its details.
-Whistle!!
Rex’s whistle rang out thunderously, and at the same time, mana of completely different attributes gathered around Ayla and Roxanna.
One side had cold, static mana. The other had hot, turbulent mana.
‘A clash between magics at opposite poles.’
Magic had affinities, too. For example, lightning magic was easily blocked by earth magic.
However, when it came to mana situated at such opposite poles, it was fundamentally impossible for one side to overpower the other through affinity alone. The side with greater pure firepower would win.
In other words, it would come down to a contest of strength.
‘But….’
Had my uneasy prediction come true? The fireballs swirling around Roxanna were woefully inferior to Karen’s from the first round in size, firepower, and number.
‘There are only single-digit numbers of fireballs…?’
My concern seemed to have been spot-on. Uneasily, I turned my head toward Ayla.
‘…Ah.’
At that moment, I realized.
I felt sorry for Roxanna, but this was going to be a perfect defeat for her.
A dazzling white storm, powerful enough to casually swallow all nine of Roxanna’s fireballs and more, roared behind Ayla, twisting its entire body as though flapping its wings.
Roxanna herself must have realized it, too. The mana gathering around her was gradually losing its strength.
Meanwhile, the mana gathering around Ayla continued to grow, making the white storm expand further and further.
Ayla, who had been silently watching Roxanna, quietly opened her mouth.
“I’ll let you have the first move.”
“…Ugh!”
Apparently stung badly in her pride, Roxanna bit her lip and gathered three fireballs together.
-Fwoooosh…!!
The three fireballs stretched their tails out long like meteors and began spinning at high speed, chasing one another’s tails.
“Yasakani no Magatama?”
Karen muttered as she watched.
“Idiot.”
“What do you mean, idiot?”
Igor asked. Karen glanced at him, folded her arms, and continued.
“Yasakani no Magatama is magic designed to catch an opponent off guard, and its trajectory can be bent freely. Ayla’s cold magic is static magic that leaves no openings. To face it properly, you shouldn’t try to surprise her—you should crush her with the overwhelming firepower of barrage magic.”
As she said this, Karen glanced at Roxanna and gave a light scoff.
“Well, forcing Ayla down in a contest of strength would be impossible for her no matter how hard she tried. What can you expect from a halfwit who can’t even make proper use of magic affinities?”
“Is that so.”
Igor nodded in agreement without saying much.
But Rex, who had been quietly listening to their conversation, suddenly widened his eyes and whipped his head around. Why was he so surprised?
-Bang!!
The three fireballs spinning in front of Roxanna’s palm launched themselves, rotating as though chasing one another’s tails.
The fireballs flew toward Ayla along a parabola that skimmed the ground like spinning Frisbees….
-Sizzle…!
The moment they touched the chill surrounding her, they evaporated into thin air without leaving a trace.
“Is that all?”
Ayla asked quietly.
It was not even a taunt. It was merely a question.
That meant she did not even regard Roxanna as an equal opponent.
“….”
Roxanna slowly bit her lower lip.
-Fwoooosh…!
Just as she was about to draw up the remaining six fireballs all at once—
“Then I’ll make the second move.”
-Krrrrrk…!!
The air froze.
Exactly twelve ice spears formed in the air around Ayla—precisely twice the number of Roxanna’s fireballs.
The chill pouring from the ice spears alone robbed the fireballs of their strength, shrinking them to the size of fists before they could release their full firepower.
“…Hic.”
Roxanna stared blankly at Ayla and hiccupped, her face gone white.
‘Ah, I see.’
Only then did I realize why Charlotte had tried to pair Roxanna with Ayla.
Timid, easily frightened, and weak in actual combat, Roxanna had the worst possible affinity with Igor, who was always calm and composed and specialized in close combat.
For Roxanna, a defeat in which Ayla simply overwhelmed her head-on would be just a little better.
Ayla stared at her in silence, then let out a sigh and withdrew the ice spears.
“…You won’t even counterattack?”
“….”
Ayla gazed coldly at the trembling Roxanna for a moment, then turned around and left the sparring grounds of her own accord as she spoke quietly.
“I concede.”
Roxanna’s victory.
Worse than a defeat.
=
“I’m sorry about all that. My little cousin made a sorry spectacle of herself.”
“Please don’t say something you don’t mean.”
Ayla dismissed Karen in a cold tone, clearly quite offended, as Karen spoke with a bitter smile.
Maximilian, who had been sitting beside her, rose from his seat and said,
“I’ll go.”
“Is this a two-match series?”
Karen called after him.
“It probably will be.”
“Do your best~”
Karen waved at him brightly. Maximilian silently nodded, then strode into the sparring grounds.
Inside the sparring grounds, Miriam was lightly warming up, having dashed out immediately after Roxanna exited.
“Oh!”
When Miriam saw Maximilian walking into the area covered by the boundary stone, her face lit up and she shouted,
“I look forward to working with you!!”
“…I’ll warn you now: since you were the one who directly challenged me to a spar, I have no intention of holding back.”
Maximilian declared to Miriam.
“Aha. So that’s how you’re going to play it.”
Miriam muttered with a small laugh, then wiped the amusement from her face and stiffened her expression.
“Your Highness. Confidence is good, but….”
“?”
Miriam drew up her mana and spoke quietly.
“It won’t be as easy as you think.”
=
“Training?”
“Yeah. I feel bad being the only one getting something out of this.”
A little over a month ago.
When I had gotten the hang of controlling my strength to some extent,
I made Miriam that proposal.
“But you haven’t even officially taken up your post yet….”
To the hesitant Miriam, I said with a smile,
“It’s fine! I haven’t officially taken up the post, but I’m practically an active instructor already.”
“I-Is that so.”
“And I want to study how to teach someone, too.”
I said this while wiping the sauce from the corner of Miriam’s mouth with a tissue.
“In other words, it’s win-win.”
“…Yes!”
Miriam answered with a happy smile.
…And back to the present.
Watching Miriam scatter mana sharp enough to clash at any moment in every direction, I thought to myself,
‘Three weeks.’
As I gradually adapted to sparring rather than combat with Miriam, I watched her train up close and offered her a few pieces of advice.
It had only been three weeks of training, but even with just a few suggestions, Miriam had grown noticeably.
Honestly, I didn’t think my advice had been particularly good. I was still a complete novice as both an instructor and a teacher, and all I had done was point out a few superficial problems in the way Miriam fought.
But Miriam had grown so strong in that short time that she was almost unrecognizable. It wasn’t that her total amount of power had increased. Her openings had decreased, and her combat intelligence and judgment had grown noticeably.
I focused on their spar with faint expectations, wondering how far Miriam could go against Maximilian. I couldn’t form a clear picture of it in my head, even in my imagination.
“…Was that a provocation, by any chance?”
Maximilian asked Miriam, who had shouted boldly at him.
Miriam nodded instead of answering.
“I see.”
Maximilian muttered that, then abruptly spoke to Miriam as he watched her.
“I will not draw my sword.”
“…Pardon?”
“If I draw my sword, count it as my defeat.”
At Maximilian’s bold declaration, Miriam’s eyes widened.
Then she grinned and said,
“You’d better not take that back.”
“I swear upon the sun.”
Maximilian nodded as he answered.
“Come. I’ll even yield the first move.”
“Aren’t you being too generous?”
Miriam said as she repeatedly cracked her neck from side to side, as though her body were itching to move.
A low growl gradually mingled into the end of her voice.
The mana surging around her slowly gathered in her extremities, and short, coarse fur grew below her elbows and shins.
Her hair grew long and swept backward like an animal’s fur, while her pupils became sharp and vertically slit.
“Then I won’t hold back…!”
-Boom!!
Miriam’s afterimage stretched far to either side.
A thunderous roar rang out just after she collided with Maximilian.
“Did you reach the speed of sound?”
-Crack…!
The smoke that had risen in an instant cleared. Maximilian, gripping Miriam’s forearm tightly, muttered quietly,
“Looks like you do have the skill to back up that big talk.”
-Whoosh…!
Miriam’s body rose into the air. As though throwing a flail, Maximilian swung Miriam wildly through the air before hurling her straight upward.
“Waaah?!”
As Miriam flew away screaming, Maximilian pointed his index finger at her.
-Pfft.
A short, thick beam of bright yellow light shot out.
The total amount of mana contained in that small beam was greater than Karen’s fireballs.
-Thwack…!
The beam struck Miriam directly in the abdomen. She let out a wheezing sound as the air left her, then crumpled to the ground.
“But that’s all.”
Looking down at Miriam, who had fallen to the ground, Maximilian muttered coldly,
“But you won’t get any further….”
“…Cough.”
At that moment.
Miriam, who had been lying there, let out a harsh cough.
“What was that about ‘big talk’…?”
“….”
“If you thought firing one measly spell like that would finish me, you’re sorely mistaken…!”
Maximilian watched Miriam silently with his eyes wide, apparently somewhat surprised. Miriam staggered to her feet and shouted at him in a growling voice,
“Not yet…! You’ve got a long way to go!!”