Chapter 29
The magic tower's combat practical ended more simply than expected.
We won, but...
The magic tower's magician and escort we fought are lying defeated in front of us.
We were able to achieve victory easily.
Winning wasn't particularly difficult.
This was a very natural result.
No matter how poor my swordsmanship talent was, I had trained very hard.
Plus, the Spirit Sword's specs couldn’t be ignored, so there was no way we could lose no matter what.
Of course, the opponents weren't weak, but they were no match for me now.
Simply put, they were weaker than the magic beasts I've faced so far, right?
It was natural that I could win alone even without using Beepbee.
The first round ended so easily, but...
"Um... Daphne?"
"Yes..."
That didn’t mean there were no problems.
I couldn't help but make a somewhat troubled expression as I looked at Daphne.
That was because her combat magic skills shown in this battle were really terrible.
She was practically at the level of a beginner mage.
It was basically like I fought 2-on-1 alone.
"I'm sorry, Davian. I'm so bad at combat..."
Daphne seemed to know about her terrible skills and was apologizing to me.
Looking at her, I was making a very troubled expression.
What should I do...?
She doesn't know how to fight at all?
I naturally thought she would be good at combat.
Of course, I didn't expect her to be as good as the hero's party level since she hadn't joined yet, but
Still, there was a basic level, right?
I thought she would definitely meet that level, but Daphne didn't.
I never dreamed this would happen.
At this rate, she won't pass.
So this situation could be considered quite critical.
The win or loss in the combat practical didn’t particularly matter.
What was important is solely the magician's combat ability.
Daphne would definitely fail in that combat ability aspect.
At this rate, she wouldn’t pass the exam.
It was only natural that she would be expelled from the magic tower.
A situation that could go badly wrong in many ways…
Of course, it was somewhat fortunate that there was a way to prevent that future.
Should we aim for the final victory?
If we won the final victory in the magic tower's combat practical, maybe Daphne could stay at the magic tower?
No matter how terrible her combat score was, there was an unwritten rule that if you won until the end, you automatically passed the test.
There was an episode related to that in the original story, and it probably wouldn't be different now.
I guess we have no choice but to aim for the final victory?
If I had known this would happen, I should have tried to coordinate with Daphne about combat…
It seemed it was my fault for believing too much that Daphne would become part of the hero's party later.
I shouldn't do this next time...
Anyway, I set the goal of winning the final victory.
Winning like that shouldn't be too difficult.
Even though it was a 2-on-1 situation, how could we not win?
To be blunt, there probably wasn't a team here that could defeat a magic beast.
So I wasn’t particularly worried, but...
In the end, we'll face Kailyn.
If there was one uncomfortable thing, it was that we'd face Kailyn again.
Why did I keep feeling like I was getting involved with Kailyn?
It was really an unpleasant situation.
There's no choice.
But what could I do?
I couldn't just watch Daphne get expelled from the magic tower like this.
Making up my mind was quicker than expected.
"What if I fail like this... sob..."
"It's okay."
"Huh?"
"If we survive until the end, they'll pass you."
I told the worried Daphne that it was okay.
If we won, it'd be fine.
Then she wouldn't have to leave the magic tower.
"T-that... but..."
Daphne seemed to know that would work, but she still looked very worried.
There was no need to worry at all.
I told Daphne not to worry too much.
"It's fine, I tell you. Let's watch that instead."
Rather than worrying about that now, it would be better to do something even a little helpful.
I pointed ahead and spoke to Daphne.
A battle was about to begin between Kailyn and her escort, and another team of a mage and escort.
To think I'd actually see Kailyn fight like this.
I planned to watch once.
***
In the original story, Kailyn was quite strong.
She was clearly a villain who acted as a counterpoint to the hero's party.
Naturally, it was only natural that she had abilities comparable to the hero's party.
Kailyn is a specialist in ice magic.
Her specialty was magic using the ice attribute.
Kailyn, who had extreme talent in ice magic, wielded powerful ice magic.
The power of that ice magic was so strong that only Levia, who had fully awakened as a saint in the very late stages, could properly block it.
If one looked at just pure firepower, she might be stronger than the hero's party.
"Argh!!!"
Just looking at this battle, one could see how strong she was.
Kailyn had rendered the opposing escort and mage incapacitated with one blow.
The opposing mage tried to use fire magic against Kailyn's ice magic, but…
Kailyn's ice magic was at a level that couldn't be blocked by mediocre fire magic.
She was quite strong even at this point.
This was an undeniable fact.
"Huff... huff..."
But that didn’t mean there were no problems.
Kailyn looked quite exhausted after the battle.
She was struggling a lot after using magic just once.
Her innate mana is too low.
It was natural.
Kailyn had a constitution with innately low mana.
No matter how amazing ice magic she could use was, her mana was too insufficient to use that magic.
A mana capacity that was below even ordinary mages.
In the original story, the mana problem always held her back.
Even though she drove the hero's party into crisis several times, she couldn't finish properly because of mana in the end.
She steadily increased her capacity through training somehow.
But in the end, she couldn't overcome that limit.
This was the reason why she couldn't become part of the hero's party.
That's why she's obsessed with spirits.
And this was also the reason why she wanted to contract with a spirit.
With a spirit, one could somewhat cover for insufficient mana.
If that happened, it would perfectly compensate for her weakness.
Well, of course, whether she wanted to or not, the spirit never revealed itself to her until the end.
She solves that problem in the very late stages... but that was the problem.
Instead, something else appeared to her.
So in the end, she resolved her problem and fought the final battle, but…
Well, that wasn’t something to talk about here and now.
Anyway, we had to fight Kailyn like that.
It'll be easy.
I thought it would be simpler than expected.
Wouldn’t she have used up all her mana by the time she met us?
If I had met Kailyn at the beginning, I might have struggled quite a bit, but was there anything easier to deal with than a mage who had used up all their mana?
Kailyn was the only one here who might be able to defeat me.
I thought it was fortunate that we were meeting her late.
"Our next opponent is Kailyn..."
"Let's get ready."
It was time to fight now.
Daphne and I took our positions to face off against Kailyn.
"Huff... huff..."
Kailyn looked quite exhausted.
She must have tried to conserve mana, but no matter how much she did, it wasn't enough.
She looked quite tired even before starting.
"Kailyn looks very tired?"
"..."
"I'll tell you in advance. You can forfeit. I plan to win this test. You might think I'm weak, but I've become strong enough to win this competition. I won't go easy on you."
In that state, she might be able to beat other mages, but she definitely couldn’t beat me.
I gave her some advice.
Telling her to surrender.
"Don't be ridiculous. I'll never lose to someone like you, so come at me quickly."
"Alright. If that's your answer."
Of course, Kailyn wasn't one to listen to those words.
She glared and said she would win.
If she says that, what can I do?
No matter how tired she was, I didn't plan to go easy on her.
I was about to move to achieve victory against her when...
"Miss Kailyn. Would you let me handle this?"
Who's this guy?
The escort who had been quiet until now spoke up.
A man with golden hair and a somewhat burdensome face.
"If I win this match, please make me your fiancé as we discussed before."
What is he suddenly saying...?