Chapter 20
Eating with Ena in the cafeteria.
It had become quite familiar before I knew it.
As always, Ena was eating with her plate piled high.
I, too, usually ate slowly to match her pace.
And..
Every now and then, familiar faces would greet us.
Sometimes I was the one who greeted them first.
This time, it was Elisa.
“We..! Our first opponents have been decided!”
Elisa came running toward us with a hologram in hand.
Her expression wasn't very pleasant.
“.. Are they strong?”
I looked at what had appeared on the hologram.
There was a list.
“The average rank of our opponents is.. middle-tier..!”
Hmm.. Middle-tier?
That meant they were exactly average.
We should be able to beat average opponents.
Unfamiliar names were written on the list.
Jaron, Gwang, Henz.. something something.
But.
The moment I saw the list, all I could do was snort.
“We’ll win.” “Easy?”
Ena gave the list a sidelong glance,
then turned her head away.
“Eh..? They have.. combat power comparable to ours?”
No.
Their level was clearly similar.
But..
“They have four warriors, don’t they? That composition is terrible.”
We had to force a field battle,
or charge recklessly at the start and wipe them out.
If.. they ever let us control the distance between us,
they'd simply become helpless.
Of course..
It could vary depending on what Abilities they had.
But most of those Abilities would probably be ones beneficial to warriors.
If so.. no matter how wildly they rampaged, they'd be nothing but monkeys.
“Aha..? I see!”
I nodded.
Of course, there could be any number of variables.
No matter how bad the enemy composition was,
we still shouldn't let our guard down.
Our own combat power was also weaker than expected.
“Well.. we still have to do our best.”
Ena snorted when she heard me.
“I’m not going to try my best.”
——
- The winner of the individual sparring match is.. Mist Ella!
I sighed.
In the glaring sunlight, her silver hair glittered and shone.
Mist wasn't smiling.
She rarely smiled in the first place.
But.
She looked even more displeased than usual.
We'd only known each other for a few days,
yet I'd already learned to notice these changes in her emotions.
I must be pretty sensitive too.
“Let’s hear the winner’s thoughts, Student Mist!”
Mist took the microphone and looked around once.
As though she were searching for something.
But that didn't last long.
Because her gaze fixed on one spot.
The problem was, that spot was me.
‘.. She can't be looking at me.’
I deliberately ignored it and continued watching the interview.
But no matter how I looked at it,
Mist seemed to be looking at me.
Or maybe..
“Even when facing an ant. Even when facing a giant you cannot hope to approach. You must always do your best. I will do my best.”
There was no way she'd say something like that, right?
I don't know.
Well, maybe I was just feeling guilty because of what she said.
But.
‘I’m really working hard enough as it is..’
Come to think of it, I hadn't taken a break since being sucked into the academy.
Every night, I made tennis balls and magic cards.
I'd never lived this busy a life in my previous one, either.
“Well.. it’s out of my hands now.”
It seemed unlikely that my relationship with Mist would recover anytime soon.
Once some time had passed,
as quickly as we'd become close,
we'd grown distant just as quickly.
Once more time passed,
I'd get another chance.
- Now!! That was Student Mist’s interview! Up next, the team sparring match is about to begin..!
- The students participating next.. should head straight to the outdoor training ground!!
“Ah.. I’m so nervous!!”
Elisa said with an excited expression.
I agreed.
Since entering this damn world,
I hadn't been able to let my guard down about anything.
If you got eliminated three times..
you were expelled immediately.
It was like betting three lives..
There was no way not to be nervous.
“I’m nervous too.”
“.. Huh?”
Elisa tilted her head and looked at me.
Ena chuckled as she lightly tapped my shoulder.
“No one’s going to believe you when you say that.”
“That’s right!”
I tilted my head at their reactions.
Why?
“I get nervous a lot.”
“Eh, I’ve never seen it.”
“Someone who gets that nervous does that starting from the entrance ceremony?”
Ah. So I'd been typecast since the entrance ceremony?
But I'd done that because I hadn't known being expelled meant death.
That shouldn't count.
Of course, just because I said that,
there was no way the others would believe me.
I merely chuckled and continued forward.
“Let’s just get going.”
“Yeah~ That suits you.”
Ena started walking ahead cheerfully.
Elisa.. and Jaron, who had been quietly standing beside her, followed behind.
And..
There was Mist watching them.
“.. You look like you’re having fun.”
Mist thought.
I have to face Bin in the team sparring match.
Of course.
She thought the odds were slim.
Because it was obvious Bin wouldn't try his best.
- Ena and Bellon! The sparring match between the two teams.. begins!
- This mission is.. Capture the Flag!
“A Capture the Flag match right from the start.”
Elisa stuck out her lip.
It was a battlefield where chaotic melees broke out easily.
And we were up against four melee fighters.
It was a bad start.
But it was fine.
“For now.. let’s start with a ranged bombardment, just like we planned.”
If we did what we needed to do, we'd win.
That was the advantage of a composition included in the standard playbook,
while a composition of four melee warriors always had the burden of needing to break it.
Naturally..
the enemy team wasn't stupid either.
No matter how much the early academy matches were just chaotic brawls where tactics were thrown to the dogs,
they knew that four melee fighters was a bad composition.
They must have prepared some way to counter it.
Then..
We just had to give them the bone.
“If.. on the off chance we start losing, fall straight back. Then Elisa, hold the flag and just dodge.”
As long as the flag didn't get destroyed,
time would always be on our side.
- The sparring match.. begins!!
The training ground fell silent in an instant.
The Capture the Flag battlefield
was fairly cramped.
The one saving grace was that there was relatively little cover,
and it was almost completely flat.
Then..
“Charge straight in.”
- Whoosh!!
The moment I finished speaking, Jaron's arrow flew toward the enemy.
He seemed to have already finished preparing.
I should do my part too.
- Shrrrnk!!
I sent cards flying at the enemies.
Wind.
Fire.
- Whiiiiing..! Fwoosh!!
Wind and fire surged toward the enemies.
An attack that looked tremendously powerful.
But.
Naturally, it was much weaker than ordinary magic.
“That card magic isn’t very strong!! Just break through!!”
The other side confirmed that fact for us themselves.
They weren't wrong, but..
it was a little insulting?
“Pfft..! They say you’re weak.”
The moment Ena heard the enemies, she began gathering magic in both hands.
But she was looking at me.
Seriously, she was really phoning it in, wasn't she?
But well.. it couldn't be helped.
Compared to my magic, Ena's was absurdly powerful.
“Well, I really am weak.”
Ena chuckled at my words.
“If you say that to other people, they’ll get furious.”
What on earth was there to get furious about?
I was throwing magic-inscribed cards because I lacked magic proficiency.
“Of course! If we’re only talking about magic, I am strong..”
Ena gathered both hands together in the air.
A huge flame rose from her hands.
And.
The flames began spinning in one direction.
- Whiiirl..
Increasingly powerful fire-aspected mana began pouring into the loose sphere of flame.
But the sphere did not grow larger.
More mana was being supplied to a confined space.
Faster rotation.
Greater power.
Ena's magic began to shine so intensely that it looked threatening.
“This time~ I’ll do it~?”
Ena's voice rose brightly.
But.
The corners of her mouth drooped.
Her red eyes began glowing ruby-red.
- “Compression.”
- Whiiirl!!!
The sphere of flame that had been spinning as large as a watermelon
gradually compressed into a smaller and smaller mass.
The fact that the flames had been compressed
meant they'd moved.. closer to the axis of rotation.
- Whiiiiiiiiir!!!
By the law of conservation of angular momentum,
the rapidly spinning fireball rotated at an even more insane speed.
Just from spinning in place..
it produced a noise that made the listeners' ears go numb.
“…”
Ena didn't say anything.
She merely
extended her hand.
- Fwoosh..!
Due to the tremendous rotational force,
a powerful pillar of fire shot up in an instant.
The pillar of fire spun like mad.
Like a tornado sweeping across the ground.
And..
Just like my [Fire Tornado].
- Aaaaargh!!!!
Powerful screams came from the enemies.
Ena opened her clouded eyes and turned toward me.
- I.. I surrender!
The overwhelming difference in power.
A powerful spell that made you lose consciousness from a single hit.
It was only natural
that the enemies' will to fight was broken.
But..
I was simply dumbfounded.
‘.. Isn’t this a spell she only starts using in at least her second year?’
‘Why.. is she using it now?’
The pillar of fire Ena mainly used.
The power of this pillar of fire was one of the strongest spells among students of the same level.
Even in the second year.
The only thing capable of withstanding this
was Mist's [Mist Form].
“.. I’m tired.”
Ena looked at me and gathered mana at her fingertips.
Only a very small amount of mana gathered.
“I can only use it once like this, too..”
“How did you do it?”
Ena tilted her head with an expression of incomprehension.
There was no emotion to be read in her eyes.
No..
It felt as though she was thinking about something.
That..
It was as though she was trying to see what I was hiding.
A third eye.. trying to peer into my mind.
What broke that silence
was the announcer's voice.
- Ena and Team Bellon!
- The winner is.. Team Ena!
The professor who had been watching the match looked at Ena in bewilderment.
He was probably wondering what kind of person she was to use magic this powerful.
No one had used magic that powerful during the entrance exams.
Of course.
Thanks to that, I could breathe a sigh of relief.
Because the look in Ena's eyes.. had been rather suffocating.
‘.. Honestly, there’s quite a difference in power between hers and mine.. so what does she suspect?’
Of course..
It would be strange that I, who couldn't use a single spell, could perform a technique similar to hers, even if mine was weaker.
But.
The principles were completely different.
I borrowed the power around me,
while Ena simply blew everything around her apart on her own.
‘Even if I explained it like that.. it wouldn’t mean anything.’
Because she hated beating around the bush.
I answered Ena as I looked at her.
Simply. Honestly, the way she liked it.
“I can only use it under certain conditions.”
Ena crossed her arms after hearing me.
Then she looked at the ground as though thinking about something.
She spent a surprisingly long time thinking.
About one or two seconds.
She raised her head again, approached me with a small chuckle.
“All right, I’ll believe you!”
Ena came over and held out her fist.
I bumped my fist against hers as well.
- Tap.
But.
Why had she thought about it that long?
Was she wondering if I'd lied?
Hmm.. She could have just asked what principle it worked on.
I honestly told Ena what I was thinking.
“Before you decide to believe me.. couldn’t you just ask what principle I used?”
Ena smiled and shook her head.
“It’s not like I’m so weak I need to steal your technique, you know?”
Hmm..
I was a little weak.
But it still hurt to hear her say it so directly.