Chapter 44
“How are you feeling?”
“Perfect.”
After the basic defensive and batting evaluations were over, the evaluation game to determine the starting lineup finally began.
Standing on the mound, I rolled my shoulders a few times and looked at today’s ‘partner,’ catcher Lia.
“By the way, Lia, you can hit pretty well too, huh? Where did you learn?”
“My dad likes baseball.”
Lia leaned close and pointed to the area between left and center field.
“That’s today’s dimensional field. A little shallow, between left and center.”
“Tricky location.”
The dimensional field was a special rule found only in magic baseball.
It was a device for adding variables to defense; balls passing through that area tended to have their trajectories disrupted or bounce off in unpredictable directions.
I loosened my ankle and nodded.
“Then I’ll throw as far outside as possible.”
“Can you do that?”
“Of course.”
It’s not like I’ve only been playing baseball for a day or two.
After I gave her a couple of light pats on the back, Lia nodded and returned to her position.
I rolled my arm around and cast a sidelong glance at Kairos, sitting in the opposing dugout.
‘Watch closely.’
Baseball was a battle of momentum. If you seized the initiative early, you could put tremendous pressure on your opponent.
I didn’t know how well Kairos could pitch, but if I showed overwhelming skill first, I could at least put a dent in his morale.
“We’re starting~! Everyone get ready~”
Teacher Justina, standing behind the catcher, raised her voice.
At the same time, a ball rolled toward me. I caught it, placed it in my glove, and briefly closed my eyes to steady my breathing.
‘I need to show my ability, even if I have to push myself a little at first.’
At the start of a game, the starting pitcher was given 1,000 mana that could not be recovered once spent (not a definite number, merely an example), and had to pitch by allocating it appropriately wherever they wanted.
In other words, the key to a starting pitcher in magic baseball was the ability to plan ‘how to manage a limited amount of mana.’
‘First, just 10 mana!’
I took a fastball grip and nodded.
Soon, with Teacher Justina’s booming cry of “Play ball!”, the opposing team’s leadoff batter ambled into the batter’s box with his bat in hand.
※※
“W-what was that pitch just now?”
“Was Rene always this athletic?”
“Strike! Strikeout!”
With Teacher Justina’s call, the third batter lowered his head.
Kairos’s team’s top half of the first ended after just nine pitches.
Nine strikes, zero balls. All three batters struck out on three pitches each.
‘……Why is she pitching so well!!’
Kairos lowered his head in shock.
The other students sitting beside him seemed to feel the same way and began buzzing frantically.
“W-we should go up too, Kairos.”
Kairos’s team’s catcher, Eugene, approached cautiously and spoke. He looked thoroughly flustered as well.
Kairos kept his head bowed, rubbed his face several times with his palms, then nodded and stood up.
“Yeah.”
Nothing would change by staying here.
His goal was the starting pitcher position for Petrus Dormitory. To achieve it, he had to defeat Rene no matter what.
‘To trigger the event, I absolutely have to claim the starting position….’
Kairos had never lost his place in the starting lineup before.
Not only was his natural athletic ability exceptional thanks to the advantages built into the world, but given the magical nature of baseball, there was no way he would be outmatched in the quality of his magic.
But pitching, at least, was an unknown realm even for Kairos, who had been through every kind of battle imaginable—even aerial combat.
He stepped onto the mound with a pounding heart. Eugene, standing beside him, pointed toward left-center field and spoke.
“That’s today’s dimensional field.”
“Yeah, thanks.”
“Do your best.”
Eugene gave him a light pat on the back and returned to his position.
Kairos watched his retreating back for a moment, then closed both eyes.
‘As a man, I have the advantage in basic physical attributes. Stay calm and start with 10 mana.’
He didn’t know how much mana Rene had used at the beginning, but there was no way she had thrown a ball with that kind of power without investing anything.
‘She must have used at least 200 or so to seize the initiative.’
Then he might be outmatched in pitch quality, but he could have the edge in stamina. Kairos steeled himself and gripped the ball tightly.
“The bottom of the first starts~!”
Justina shouted while looking at Kairos.
“Yes.”
Kairos opened his eyes again and nodded.
“Wooooo!”
“You can do it!!”
A tremendous cheer suddenly erupted from the opposite dugout.
When Kairos reflexively turned his head….
“……What?”
He saw Rene walking toward the left-handed batter’s box while twirling her bat.
“Rene’s team decided to play without a designated hitter~”
As if reading Kairos’s expression, Justina explained.
Rene sauntered into the batter’s box, then gave Kairos a wide grin.
‘……Ugh.’
The tip of her bat was pointing straight at Kairos.
After holding it that way for quite some time, she pointed the bat beyond the left-center-field fence.
‘Is she calling a home run?’
It was unmistakably a provocation.
‘Was Rene always this kind of person…?’
The question briefly crossed his mind, but Kairos soon shook it off and steeled himself.
If he could strike Rene out in style here, he might be able to reclaim the momentum he had lost. Maybe this was an opportunity.
‘All right, let’s do this….’
Kairos set his fastball grip, steeling himself.
Right—he had dispatched thousands of demons, overcome the Four Heavenly Kings hundreds of times, and even subdued the Demon King several times. He was a battle-hardened hero.
Compared to that, winning Rene’s heart should be a piece of cake!
Kairos loaded the ball with even more mana and wound up dramatically.
‘20 mana for the first pitch!’
The ball flew at tremendous speed. It was well-placed, too.
Smack!
“Strike!”
Justina signaled a strike. This time, a cheer erupted from Kairos’s team’s dugout.
“……”
Rene also seemed a little surprised as she opened her eyes wide and looked at Kairos. Kairos clenched his fist and prepared his next pitch.
“Strike!”
This time, it was a fastball that painted the outside corner. He used 20 mana again.
‘If I can just take care of Rene…!’
His obvious goal was a three-pitch strikeout. The third pitch was a slider. Kairos adjusted his grip and glared at Rene.
Then, kicking off hard, he focused 40 mana at his fingertips for a perfect finish.
Whoosh—!
The ball flew at a terrifying speed. It dove inside, then broke and dropped right in front of home plate, literally like ‘magic.’
‘I did it…!’
The sensation at his fingertips was perfect, too. It was a masterpiece of a pitch, born from all the practice he had put in the previous night.
Kairos unconsciously clenched his fist and waited for the result.
‘……Huh?’
But at that moment… something came clearly into view.
A tiny smile spreading at the corners of Rene’s lips.
Crack!
A sharp report reverberated through the field.
For a moment, it seemed as though every sound had stopped.
Everyone’s gaze, Kairos’s included, followed the ball as it soared high into the sky.
‘…….’
Everyone froze in place. Before anyone even dared try to follow it, the ball traced a graceful parabola toward the fence.
‘Over there…….’
Left-center field—the spot Rene had just pointed to. Even though the ball had already sailed well over the fence, it continued flying for quite some time.
“Fwee~”
At that moment, Kairos heard a whistle by his ear. Rene lightly tossed the bat from her hand and began walking daintily toward first base.
“H-home run…!”
“Waaaaaa!”
With Teacher Justina’s declaration, an enormous cheer finally filled the field.
Kairos looked at Rene with both hands hanging limply at his sides.
Rene looked back at him as well, and without slowing as she rounded the bases, clearly mouthed something.
‘Loser.’
It was a single word that completely crushed Kairos’s will to fight.
※※
“Hehe… hehehe….”
The evaluation game naturally ended in an overwhelming victory for our team.
On the way back to the dormitory, Lia chuckled as she watched me grin to myself.
“Are you really that happy?”
“Of course.”
“Because you beat Kairos?”
“Well, that’s part of it.”
To be precise, half of it was the exhilaration of beating Kairos, and the other half was the relief of knowing that even in Rene’s body, I could contribute to Petrus’s victory.
‘I had no idea her magic efficiency was this high.’
From direct experience, I had learned that Rene’s body was literally ‘born’ for baseball.
Its efficiency at transferring mana to the ball—in other words, its mana conductivity—was superior not only to that of my original body, but even to Erica’s.
‘No wonder her mana transfer efficiency was so high.’
The reason Kairos had been able to face three demons that day was probably because he had drawn on my high-purity mana with such efficiency.
Honestly, with efficiency like that, even Lia might have been able to fight Kairos on equal terms.
“Rene, you pay more attention to Kairos than you let on?”
“That bastard was the one who picked a fight this time.”
“Well, Kairos was pitching pretty well too, wasn’t he?”
“What good does pitching pretty well do when I hit two home runs off him?”
It was, literally, a complete victory.
As a batter, I had hit two home runs in three at-bats; as a pitcher, I had thrown a complete-game shutout over seven innings while allowing three hits.
‘I feel bad for going all-out in a fight between first-years, but… well, it is a dormitory competition. This much should be fine.’
I hummed cheerfully.
Then, as I tried to quicken my pace toward the dormitory visible in the distance….
“Rene.”
I spotted Kairos, who had suddenly appeared beside me.
“……”
This guy kept popping up out of nowhere. I stopped walking and scowled.
“Oh~ Kairos, you worked hard today too.”
Lia gave him a casual greeting. Kairos briefly greeted Lia as well, then immediately looked at me and spoke.
“You were really impressive today. It was a complete defeat.”
“So?”
“Huh?”
“You didn’t come just to congratulate me. What do you want?”
Offering words of encouragement to the loser might be the victor’s magnanimity, but I had no particular desire to extend it to that bastard.
Kairos seemed flustered and hesitated, then gave an awkward laugh as he scratched his head.
“You caught me.”
After pausing for a moment, he continued slowly,
“Could you teach me how to throw a ball?”
“……What?”
This guy? To me? He wanted me to teach him?
It was something I had never expected to hear from Kairos’s mouth.