Chapter 27
Second in the Academy’s overall rankings.
Until just before entering the academy, she’d been absolutely certain she’d be top of the class.
Her magical ability was incomparable to that of her peers, and she had a brilliant mind.
Naturally, she’d thought first place was hers for the taking… but she’d come in second.
‘Why? How?’
She’d been outmatched by Ian in combat.
That made sense. He was the Hero’s son. She could understand his bizarre skill.
But she couldn’t understand how she’d come second in the written exams, too.
Why? How?
All her hard work, even studying through sleepless nights, had been beaten by a mere commoner student.
‘…There’s no way. A commoner couldn’t possibly have scored higher than me on the written exams, right?’
She must have cheated somehow.
She’d protested to the teachers, but all they’d given her in return was the perfunctory answer that there was no way that had happened.
Then, an opportunity presented itself.
In the team battle exercise, the commoner’s team was chosen as her opponents.
Thinking there was no way a commoner could beat her, she began the battle full of confidence, but…
“Surrender?”
“…I surrender.”
She’d been defeated in less than a minute.
The overwhelming difference in strength and talent.
‘So this is… talent.’
She was a genius herself, so she knew what she was seeing.
That was a level she could never hope to reach.
As she stood there in despair, a woman appeared before her.
Introducing herself as ‘Purity,’ the woman spoke to her while wearing a silver robe.
Didn’t she want to become stronger? Wasn’t she sick of losing to commoners with filthy blood in their veins?
Under normal circumstances, she would never have accepted such an offer. But, worn down by one defeat after another, she accepted ‘Purity’s’ proposal.
And now.
The commoner she’d met again.
Without hesitation, she swallowed the pill ‘Purity’ had given her.
-Crunch.
…
Huh. The presence of the mage behind me just changed.
So, she was the second-place student, wasn’t she?
I remembered her as a fairly talented mage.
She’d shown promise during the team battle exercise, too.
But…
“Aaaaaah!!!”
Why would she rely on that kind of power?
The moment the second-place student took something, a considerable amount of mana poured out of her.
-W-what is that?!
-Aaaagh!
It was so powerful that every cadet nearby was blown away.
Fortunately, no one seemed to have died, though a few of them had passed out.
“Ghk! What kind of mana…!”
“Aaaah! What is this?!”
“What do you think? Doping.”
And a pretty potent kind, too.
-Ghk! Who are you people?!
Then I heard the sounds of battle nearby.
That was… the safety personnel. In other words, the Imperial Knights must be fighting.
Anyone who could hold their own against the Imperial Knights couldn’t be weak.
Uncle Luke would be here soon, but in that brief window, it’d be easy for them to wipe out everyone here.
If I weren’t here, that is.
“Ian. Get the students and run. Quickly.”
“I can’t leave you alone… No. Got it. Be careful.”
“Wait! What are you doing? She looks strong! We should fight together…”
“No. I’ll leave this to El. Come with me!”
“Ah?!”
Thank goodness. It would’ve been a problem if he’d insisted he couldn’t leave me alone.
Thank goodness Ian was quick on the uptake.
“Aaaaaah!!!!”
But the second-place student attacked Ian, as though she wouldn’t let him get away.
They were nothing but crude magic bullets, but with that much mana behind them, they could surpass most high-level spells.
Dozens of them.
Ian could’ve dodged them on his own, but not while looking after the cadets, who were little more than dead weight.
Which meant…
“Fifth Form.”
I had to stop them.
The magic bullets burst apart in the sleet.
But even after slicing through every last one of them, I couldn’t bring myself to smile.
Now that I’d cut through them myself, I could feel it clearly.
The ominous divine power hidden within that immense mana.
The White Heaven Cult again. Was this their doing?
No. More important than that was subduing the second-place student right now.
“Aaaaaah!!!!”
Apparently annoyed that her attacks had been blocked, she fired even more magic bullets at me.
I couldn’t dodge, since there were still cadets who hadn’t gotten away.
Well… I could just cut them all down.
“Sixth Form.”
I infused my sword with mana and unleashed a storm.
I hadn’t imbued it with Sword Intent, but it was still a pretty powerful storm of sword energy.
-Kra-ka-ka-ka-boom!
The storm sliced through every magic bullet and struck the second-place student, too.
“Aaaah!!”
She threw herself aside to dodge.
That was a wise choice. If she’d tried to block it, she would’ve been torn apart.
Realizing that magic bullets wouldn’t work, the second-place student began using proper spells.
Fireballs, Thunder Spears… They were simple spells, but their power was anything but.
At that level, shouldn’t she be calling it a Light Meteor instead of a Fireball?
“Hup!”
As I knocked aside the spells flying toward me one by one, the second-place student stared at me in shock.
“Aaaaaah!!!”
If I had to interpret that, it meant something like, ‘This is impossible!’ didn’t it?
Well, you should’ve picked your opponent more carefully.
After confirming that Ian had gotten away safely, I dashed toward the second-place student.
“Aaaaaah!!”
She hurriedly threw up a barrier, but…
-Krrash!
There was no way something like that could stop me.
As soon as the barrier shattered, I kicked her and sent her flying.
“Aaaaaah!!!”
“Quiet.”
-Whack!
“Aah…”
I hit her on the head, too, knocking her unconscious.
Hmm… I didn’t kill her, did I?
She’s breathing, so she seems to be alive.
Anyway, what should I do with her…
…
Leaving El behind, I led the other cadets as we ran.
“Hey! Are you sure we shouldn’t help her?”
“Yeah! We should go help her right now…”
“There’s no need.”
I didn’t know exactly how strong El was, but El was far stronger than I was.
El would easily beat someone like the second-place student.
If anything, having us there would make it harder for El to use full strength.
“Ian… El will be okay, right?”
“Of course. There’s no way El would lose to someone like that.”
El wasn’t the kind of person who’d lose to someone who’d used a dirty trick to strengthen themselves.
So our best option was to get far away and avoid becoming a burden to El.
That was the best option, but…
“…Damn.”
After running in a panic, we came upon a standoff between the academy’s safety personnel and a group of people in silver armor.
Each individual member of the academy’s side was stronger, but the silver-armored group vastly outnumbered them.
To make matters worse, they were mainly targeting students.
That’s right. Students like us.
-Clang!
“Ghk!”
When I blocked the silver-armored man’s attack, a powerful jolt ran through my body.
They’re strong! But…
“They’re not too strong for me to beat!”
-Booooom!
I unleashed my mana and sent the man who’d attacked me flying.
That was right. They were strong, but not as strong as El or my father.
But they must’ve started to see me as a threat, because three of them ganged up on me.
The other cadets couldn’t handle those guys.
And the safety personnel were busy fighting the people right in front of them.
In other words, I had to hold them off.
Then…
“Hah!”
I charged at the enemies approaching me.
“…!”
They hadn’t expected me to charge at them, and froze for a moment.
Taking advantage of that opening, I slashed the torso of the one in front.
“…!”
Good. That was one down.
When I looked around, the other two were swinging their swords at me.
Tch. Their comrade had just gone down, and they didn’t even care!
I knocked away the sword coming from my left, then jumped with the momentum.
I managed to dodge the sword coming from my right by a hair’s breadth.
But then another sword strike came at me right away.
Damn, you’re still charging at me with a wound like that?
I can’t dodge this…
-Bang!
At that moment, a huge shield appeared in front of me and blocked his sword.
This shield… Arin?
“Aah! Seriously! Don’t just run off by yourself!”
“Ghk? Get out of here!”
This wouldn’t do. Arin wasn’t strong enough to hold them off…
-Clang!
“Guh?!”
“You idiot! You nearly got yourself killed charging out alone, and now that you’re alive, the first thing you should do is thank me!”
Arin’s face twisted as if Arin were about to cry.
“El couldn’t help because El wasn’t strong enough, and you’re telling me not to help you, too? Shut up! I’m a tank! A shield-bearer! Of course I’m going to protect my allies!”
Hearing Arin’s words made my head spin.
A teammate. Right. Arin wasn’t a burden I had to protect. Arin was my teammate and my ally.
An ally who could actively help me, not just someone waiting for my help.
Had I forgotten something so obvious just because I thought I was a little strong…?
What an idiot.
-Smack!
“Eek?! Wh-wh-what are you doing?”
“Nothing. I just came to my senses.”
Right. I, too, was just a weakling.
A weakling who couldn’t do anything alone.
So…
“Arin, could you help me out a little?”
I should ask my teammate for help.
I should let my teammate make up for what I lacked.
If I couldn’t do it alone, then we could do it together.
“Hmph! Of course! You’d better treat me to a meal later!”
“…Pfft.”
Isn’t that a pretty modest request?
“Sure. I’ll treat you to something really extravagant.”
I’ll serve you the best meal, so look forward to it.