Chapter 86
“She’s only one person! There’s no way we can lose to her!”
“She’s still a first-year! Even if she’s the top student, she can’t be that strong!”
The seniors all pointed their wands at me.
Oho.
Thanks for thinking that way.
I pointed my wand at the seniors.
Of course, I had to subdue the seniors without destroying any structures.
After all, my stated justification was to suppress the disturbance.
“Casting, Bullet, Deca.”
“Casting, Bullet, Triple, Delay.”
Two spells.
Bright, solid lines shot out in branching directions from my wand.
The seniors’ hastily deployed defensive spells shattered one after another.
The seniors shouted in panic.
“W-wait, Deca Casting!?”
“Our numerical advantage is useless!!”
I raised my wand high into the sky.
“Casting, Bullet, Penta, Guide, Explode!”
“A fivefold casting!?”
“We have to block it!”
Guidance and explosion.
It was the trickiest combination among the variant spells of basic attack magic.
“He’s using that so skillfully!?”
“Is she really a first-year?”
“That’s why she’s the top student, idiots! Dodge!”
After several explosions, several seniors went tumbling down onto the roadside.
After casting a few more spells, I surveyed the situation.
“Still, her attacks are straightforward! Block them with defensive magic somehow!”
“Hold out with body enhancement! Dodge somehow and preserve your stamina!”
Watching the seniors demonstrate different ways of responding, I smiled brightly.
This is fun.
“Are you laughing?”
“Eat this! In Code, Bullet, Amplify!”
“In Code, Bullet, Repeat!!”
Mana bullets were fired at me all at once.
“Casting, Shield.”
But it was pointless.
A densely woven mana shield could easily block attacks at that level.
“…It didn’t work?”
“Hit her!! Break through her defensive magic with aura! You magic school bastards! Help us!”
Seniors from the Knight School charged at me with swords drawn.
Aura was a little dangerous.
In terms of destructive power alone, it was incomparable to mana bullets.
Even defensive magic would break under it.
If so, I should charge in instead.
“I don’t think ganging up on a frail junior like that is quite fair!”
Without activating Dragon Eyes, I dodged every attack flying at me.
Thanks to the blood Adrian had given me, my dynamic vision was now sufficient even without using Dragon Eyes.
I let the attacks slide past and slipped in and out, searching for openings.
“She’s dodging all of them!!!?”
“No! This girl isn’t getting hit!”
I subtly moved behind a female senior from the School of Magic and blew into her ear.
“Hyaaah!”
Just as the battlefield became filled with confusion.
“Behind you, look behind you!”
—Swoooosh!
With the sound of an explosion, another Knight School student was sent sprawling.
Delay, an additional spell that delayed the impact of a mana bullet.
The mana bullet fired that way took a wide arc and got behind the seniors.
‘That’s the application Karnarof showed me.’
Even so, quite a few seniors remained standing.
They had gradually gotten used to my patterns, and each senior was in a completely different weight class from a first-year.
Of course, my goal was to subdue them without injuring them, but even so, they were much more capable than I’d expected.
“Damn it, she keeps slipping around!”
“Can’t we do anything?”
“Use Bind!”
“It won’t work! We’re being jammed! This bastard knows primitive jamming! We can’t use sloppy magic!”
“They really are seniors. They’re quite skilled!”
It wasn’t as though I thought I couldn’t win.
By now, the seniors were mixed together, with no distinction between mages and knights.
This was true unification.
While I was enjoying a merry game of tag with the seniors, someone’s voice rang out.
“Stop! That’s far enough!”
Ah.
I guess happy time is about to end.
There was a security force in School Market.
Even if that weren’t the case, anyone who saw this would come to put an end to the situation.
It would be difficult to subdue them too, and even if I did, more people would come.
I’d rather not get hauled off by Karnarof and subjected to another lecture.
‘Should I activate Silver Shoes and run away soon?’
I looked at the person approaching.
It was a student with red hair and a longsword.
But the mana I sensed from him was anything but ordinary.
I couldn’t say about Linia, but he had surpassed Aris, at least.
I realized.
This guy was obviously one of the big shots at Knight School!
Running away immediately would be the best choice, but…
“Still, I should at least trade one blow.”
I drew my sword.
Aura would be a little much, so I would just use an ordinary sword.
I took up a ready stance, but
no attack came.
“…Huh?”
He had leaped over me and charged into the middle of the seniors.
“Schneider Second Form. Crescent.”
“Urk!”
“Graaagh!”
And then he began subduing the seniors.
It didn’t matter whether they were from the School of Magic or not.
Every time he swung his sword, condensed mana burst forth.
And the seniors were sent flying.
‘That looks pretty good.’
It didn’t seem to be magic, but it looked quite useful.
He could use techniques with mana alone?
By the time the seniors had been dealt with, he shouted.
“How dare you gang up on one tiny student! What do you think you’re doing?!”
“…What?”
I felt the emotion of bewilderment for the first time in quite a while.
And it seemed the seniors felt the same.
“W-wait. There’s been a misunderstanding.”
“Have you no chivalry? How dare you oppress such a delicate young woman!”
After shouting at the seniors, he turned to me with a kindly smile.
“It’s all right now. I’ve taken up your resolve to end the conflict.”
“Pardon?”
I had been inciting the conflict.
How did things end up like this?
* * *
The security captain’s voice rang out thunderously.
“Not only did you start a fight over supplies, you fought a first-year who was trying to stop you! Are you even seniors?!”
“No… They started the fight, and they’re much stronger….”
“How could that be! Just look at that delicate little body!”
“But it’s true….”
“Silence!”
The seniors who had caused the disturbance were seized by the security guards.
Then the seniors lined up and got an earful one by one.
After roughly finishing his lecture, the security captain patted the shoulders of me and the intruder.
“As expected, top students really are different. You’re talents who will lead this Empire!”
I had instantly been promoted from troublemaker to talent.
Maybe I really was a righteous person?
As I ran that thought through my head, suddenly—
‘Top students?’
He had used the plural “top students.”
Then didn’t that mean there was another top student?
He greeted me while looking at me.
“Richard Schneider. I’m the top first-year at Lunaris Knight School.”
“Oh, so it was you.”
The annoying bastard who had interrupted my enjoyable interaction with the seniors.
“Would you be so kind as to tell me your name?”
I looked at the handsome man in front of me.
Red hair and a kindly smile.
His eyes were filled with confidence.
They were the eyes of a man who seemed never to have experienced defeat in his life.
“I’m Yumia.”
“Yumia. That’s a fine name. Do you have no family name?”
“Nope.”
Technically, if I used the Korean style, I did have Yu, but I said I didn’t because I was too lazy.
At that, he was even more surprised.
“…You were a commoner? Amazing.”
“I’m not a commoner… Sigh.”
“Have you heard the news about the exchange event?”
“I suppose.”
“Then you must have heard that you’ll be facing me.”
“Was that decided already?”
“The professor told me so.”
“No one told me that.”
Of course, I would win.
Just as I was about to provoke him a little, he beat me to it.
“There’s no need to be so tense. The result has already been decided: I will win. I’ll go easy on you.”
“Excuse me?”
He went straight to full throttle with the provocation.
That Mr. Kar-whatever had told me not to get carried away.
At this rate, I wouldn’t be able to hold myself back.
“Hmm? Was there something wrong with what I said?”
He looked at my eyes and asked as if wondering what he’d done wrong.
“Of course. You never know who’ll win until you actually fight, right?”
“It seems you don’t understand the structure of the Empire.”
“What are you talking about?”
“There are three things important in combat in this world.”
“What are they?”
“Bloodline, talent, and effort.”
“And?”
“Talent seems similar between us, and even if we’ve both put in the effort, there’s nothing we can do about bloodline.”
“Oho.”
This is interesting.
Keep going.
“The Schneider family is a line of dragon knights. Though faint, we were born with dragon blood.”
Huh?
A dragon. Now that was interesting.
“So?”
“Among them, I am one in whom the dragon’s blood has manifested quite strongly.”
“What’s good about having more dragon blood?”
“You gain the power of a dragon. Your mana and physical abilities are difficult to compare with an ordinary person’s, and that power grows even further as you mature.”
“Hmm, I see. How strong is it, exactly?”
This was more useful information than I’d expected.
So that was why his stats were increasing.
“I am a Third-Tier Half-Dragon. My ancestor is the Thunder Dragon, a Fifth-Tier Dragon out of the seven tiers.”
…Half-dragon?
Then doesn’t that mean he has fifty percent dragon blood?
I had ten percent dragon blood.
Then that made him five times mine.
That was a little intimidating.
Still, I didn’t feel like I would lose.
“Then let’s fight.”
Maybe there was something I could gain from it.
“You still refuse to give up?”
And this bastard was annoying.
“The stronger my opponent, the better.”
I’d beat him no matter what it took.
* * *
So, the place I went that night was none other than the western forest.
“Adde-mong!”
“Mm-hmm, Sis, you came? You’re not sulking because I played that prank, are you?”
Adrian greeted me with a smile, spreading her wings wide.
“Honestly, it was pretty damn awful.”
The number of people who recognized me had increased severalfold.
“But even a few months is a long time in your human lifespan. I wanted you to show your face a little more often.”
“That’s true.”
I had no grounds to complain while I was living off her gifts.
“So this time, I brought dessert.”
And so began a feast of cakes.
Adrian liked fruit cake quite a lot.
“Sis really is the best! Since I can’t cross between worlds, I can’t eat fruit like this!”
…?
I felt as though some unshared information had just brushed past me.
Well, it probably didn’t matter.
We chatted like that for a while, eventually bringing up what had happened in School Market.
“Nyahaha! Sis, aren’t you becoming way too much like a dragon?”
“I’ve always been like this.”
“Ohoho, just kidding. So he’s a half-dragon? Can you tell me which child it is?”
“He said he was a Thunder Dragon. Do you know who that is?”
Adrian seemed unable to remember and sank into deep thought.
About a minute passed before Adrian opened her mouth.
“Oh, that guy?”