Chapter 90
#Chapter 90: Librarian Ernst (11) - As a Family Member, As a Priest
Marik's hands were shaking violently.
The pain in his face.
The humiliation of being made a fool of in front of everyone.
In the first place, Marik was nowhere near words like patience or breadth of heart, so his anger broke past the critical point far too easily.
"I'll kill her."
The plan to keep that pretty face intact, to deal with her in moderation and make her submit, was all discarded.
He had forgotten even that this was only a mock battle, and that countless spectators were watching.
Yielding himself to childish irritation and impulse, Marik once again unleashed the spell.
-Whoooosh!
A sword made of flame appeared at Marik's side.
The spell Eris had deliberately placed restrictions on wasn't a problem, but the spell Marik had copied in advance absorbed its master's mana without issue and swelled in power.
"That's it! I don't know what trick she pulled, but if it's this, then!!"
With excitement, Marik unleashed a human-sized flame greatsword.
Eris countered with something like an air bullet, but its size and the mana packed into it were pitiful compared with Marik's attack.
The moment Marik was certain he would pierce Eris with that counterattack.
The greatsword's trajectory skewed just slightly.
The fire greatsword missed Eris and brushed past her.
At that hair's-breadth sight, several students let out short screams.
But Marik didn't care in the slightest, and immediately cast his next spell.
Bigger, stronger, and in greater numbers than the one he had just fired.
The sight of him unleashing high-powered spells that were completely out of place for a student shocked not only the students, but even the professors.
Even they would struggle to consume that much mana, yet Marik kept chaining attack after attack as if mana were gushing from an endless spring.
Compared to Marik's flashy, overwhelming magic, Eris's response looked shabby at first glance.
Her little spells were pushed back every time without ever managing to contest the fire greatsword's power, and the only result was to nudge its trajectory a little.
'This is no longer at mock-battle level! I have to intervene!'
Just as the referee thought that and tried to step forward, someone grabbed his shoulder.
Seeing the face of the person who had grabbed him, the referee cried out in a hurry.
"What is it, Professor Mary! Let go of me!"
"Take a good look at Eris's face."
'Her face?'
'Now is really the time to be looking at her face?'
Though he thought that, the referee almost unconsciously looked at Eris's face.
And he was stunned.
It was not the face of a weakling desperately thrashing before an inescapable disaster.
There was instead a calm, collected coolness there, even giving off an almost businesslike impression.
Only then did the referee realize what he had failed to see, blinded by Marik's flashy barrage.
Her attacks weren't hitting.
Her skin was reddened by the heat and parts of her clothes were disheveled, but that was all.
Even while caught in such a flashy, noisy offensive, Eris's body at its center had not sustained a single wound.
"Hah."
An admiring breath escaped the referee's lips.
The spell Marik kept firing had the shape of a sword, but its essence was flame.
Unlike an arrow or the like, it wasn't an attack that could be physically knocked aside.
And yet Eris was perfectly controlling its trajectory with nothing more than refraction in the air and a bit of mana guidance.
If even the timing of the spell's activation were off by the slightest bit.
If even the point of collision of the spell missed by a tiny margin.
The guidance would fail at once, and Eris would surely suffer a fatal wound.
And yet Eris showed no impatience or wavering, so as a mage, before being a professor, the referee couldn't help but be moved.
"Cheap tricks!!"
Marik seemed to notice it too, and his face twisted hard as he conjured new spells.
3rd Tier 『Magic That Whips Up a Cutting Wind』
3rd Tier 『Magic That Penetrates with Cold』
4th Tier 『Magic That Summons Earth Thorns』
Each and every one of them was a spell so powerful it was hard to believe they were only student-level, but Eris didn't panic.
That was because they were all spells she had studied, understood, and analyzed.
'That spell is enough to tear human skin and muscle, but it can't cut through bone.'
2nd Tier 『Magic That Reinforces Clothing』
For a brief moment, the clothing, now as hard as iron plate, blocked the sharp wind.
'The cold is intense enough to freeze the inside of your mouth the instant it enters your airway, but it spreads slowly.'
2nd Tier 『Magic That Makes You Nimble Like a Rabbit』
As Eris's body sped up and she took a wide route around the arena to reset her position, the cold failed to catch her and spread sluggishly until it lost all effect.
'Earth thorns vary wildly in power depending on the quality of the soil where they're created. Unless it's solid rock, but here, on this soft ground...'
2nd Tier 『Magic That Fills a Bathtub』
The mass of water that formed in front of Eris's chest fell downward, soaking the ground.
The thorns that were finished a beat late and shot toward Eris had gone limp like loose clay, leaving no sharpness at all.
No spell could get through.
Whatever she used, she handled it perfectly.
Marik, unable to accept that things were going in a completely different direction from what he'd expected, threw a childish fit.
"What is this! Why! Why isn't it working!!"
"There's no way it can work."
"...What?"
Eris stared at Marik with cold eyes and said,
"A spell isn't something that ends just because you know how to use it. Unless you correctly grasp your opponent's skill, means, and surroundings, and use it in the right place and at the right time, it means nothing."
If the one standing here had been the original casters of the spells Marik had copied, instead of Marik himself, it wouldn't have gone like this.
Had they been the kind who had pored over books again and again to learn a single spell, practiced again and again to use it properly, and gone through countless trials and errors, they would have immediately searched for a way to break through Eris's countermeasures.
The cutting wind isn't meant to be fired straight from the front; it's used as a surprise attack.
The cold is used in an indoor environment where the opponent has nowhere to run.
The thorns are used after first setting up the field with a fire spell.
But Marik didn't do that.
No, he couldn't.
All that the demon's power can imitate is the result.
It couldn't imitate even a little of the effort and trial-and-error the original casters had piled up to reach that result.
"Your spells are like they're stamped out of a mold. The mana is always pushed right up to the limit the spell can take. The aim is always dead center on the opponent's body. The activation timing is always the fastest possible. Every condition is the same every time."
That makes them easy to read.
That makes them easy to deal with.
It's a countermeasure impossible without enough knowledge, but at least Eris can do it.
And that was exactly the image of the 'ideal mage' that a certain great mage had spent his whole life pursuing and teaching.
"Ah...."
In one corner of the stands.
Delphinaris's hidden eyes trembled violently as she waited, ready to spring out at any moment.
She had thought of her as an excellent child, and nothing more.
She loved her like a granddaughter, but because of that affection she had deliberately set even stricter standards and refused to overrate her.
She had arbitrarily decided this child wasn't enough, not a candidate for the supreme heights she herself had sought.
The blindness and stubbornness of an old master.
Without knowing how much effort the disciple had piled up under that shadow.
Boom! Whoosh! Crackle!
Even while Delphinaris stood speechless and trembling, the mock battle kept surging toward its limits.
At first, even those who had been panicking and wondering whether they should stop the match were now simply staring blankly at the scene before them.
"Y-you've got to be kidding! I can't accept this, this, this... gah!"
Marik's head jerked sideways with a thwack.
It was the result of a round ball of water slapping his cheek hard.
Marik clenched his teeth and tried to counterattack, but before the spell could even be completed, the water ball that flew in next bent Marik's head the other way.
"I'll kill you-"
Thwack!
"And you think you'll get away with this-"
Thwack!
"J-just wait a second-"
Thwack!
"J-just let me catch my breath-"
Thwack!
Whether Marik threatened or begged, Eris didn't care.
What she was paying attention to wasn't Marik's cheap talk, but the staff in his hand and the spells he was casting.
Step, step.
With each exchange, Eris kept advancing, and Marik, who kept backpedaling, ended up rolling pitifully on the ground.
"U, ugh..."
Marik, who had slumped to the ground, looked up at Eris.
The arrogance and confidence he'd once had were gone; his eyes were full of a primal fear of violence and abject submissiveness.
Clack!
Eris extended her staff right in front of Marik's nose.
In the silence of everyone holding their breath, Eris said,
"Are you going to keep going?"
"I, I lost."
"Lost, you say?"
"I lost! I lost, I said!!"
The instant the end of Eris's sentence rose in pitch, Marik hastily bowed his head and changed his tone.
The referee, who had been waiting in the corner for a chance to step in, rushed over and declared,
"Mock battle over!! Winner! Representative of the Aldridge Training School, Eris!"
Waaaaaah!
The stands erupted in cheers.
Not only the Aldridge Training School, but even the students from the Loughton Training School, who should have been their rivals, were cheering as if they'd forgotten which side they belonged to for a moment.
Flashy but hollow Marik, and Eris, who had drawn the best result with the least mana expenditure.
Marik, who had clearly gone beyond the bounds of a mock battle with rough language and attacks mixed with killing intent, and Eris, who had kept the decorum of a mock battle from start to finish with a calm attitude.
The picture-perfect contrast lit a fire in the hearts of the young students.
Some of the girls were even looking at Eris with flushed faces and dreamy eyes.
Moreover, Eris herself, at the center of that cheering, was quite a wreck beneath her appearance.
'...I feel like I'm about to die.'
Mana, stamina, mental strength—nothing was in good shape.
It was the price of maintaining a tightrope walk throughout the match, where even one misstep would have meant a fatal wound.
She'd somehow managed to fake the look and elegance of an honor student, but honestly, she didn't care about dignity at all and just wanted to lie down on the floor and fall asleep immediately.
But.
'Still, not bad.'
The cheers around her, the professors' encouragement and concern asking if she was all right, and above all the fact that she'd put that haughty fake genius in his place kept pouring endless energy into Eris's tired body and mind.
Looking around just in case, Eris soon realized that the librarian she had been expecting wasn't in sight and frowned.
'That person really didn't come.'
「What's the point of coming to watch when the result is obvious? I'm busy with work.」
It was a declaration that left no room for the possibility of Eris losing.
Her unwavering faith secretly pleased Eris, but even so, it was still a little disappointing that he really hadn't come. A girl's heart was complicated.
Then, all of a sudden, Eris's eyes met Delphinaris in the stands.
Startled, the master and disciple both flinched at the same time.
But soon, with a face hardened in resolve, Delphinaris approached Eris.
Though those who hadn't noticed Delphinaris because of the illusion spell realized what was happening and made a fuss, the two of them didn't care.
Countless phrases flashed through Eris's mind.
How should she present this victory to her master?
How should she insist that she wasn't an inadequate disciple, that there was no need to search for someone better?
What if her master got angry and said she'd done something too harsh to the youngest one she cherished?
"Master, I, ...huh?"
Eris's words could not go any further.
Because Delphinaris suddenly pulled Eris into a hug.
"...I'm sorry, I really am. I'm sorry..."
The moment she heard her master's voice, sounding as if soaked through, all the calculations in Eris's head vanished like a blank page.
Her throat tightened.
Her eyes misted over.
Eris said nothing, simply hugging her master back.
That was enough.