Twenty-Fourth Chapter
Anguish of the Matchless
Alpha’s ruler didn’t have an official residence. However, that was because Cicelnia il Arlzeit lived in a place too luxurious to be called a mere official’s residence. In other words, it would be more accurate to describe her home as being fit for a king.
It was located beyond the upper-class district, the closest to the Tower of Babel. Of course, it could only be teleported to by use of a secret code, so it wasn’t somewhere just anyone could visit.
The grounds were surrounded by several kilometers of iron fencing, with the mansion itself located in the very center. The security forces included several high-ranking Magicmasters.
It was a majestic and splendid palace that seemed out of place in this day and age, and evoked awe in those who saw it.
There was a grand corridor supported by several massive pillars, and the decorative lighting looked like it had been set up for a huge party.
Paintings adorned the walls. Chandeliers hung down from the ceiling at even intervals. Then there was the sublime sculpture with excessively ornamental armor and a sword decorated with jewels.
This was the pinnacle of luxurious living. All of these treasures wouldn’t even make a dent in the palace’s total wealth, as in the basement there was a massive vault that nobody had even seen. And very few knew of its existence.
All things considered, it was truly fit to be called a royal palace. Despite its fantastical appearance, however, it was also a place for diplomatic affairs, so there was currently a fierce atmosphere filling the palace.
And right now—a lone elder was running down the magnificent hallway. He was rushing so fast that he ran the risk of knocking over one of the many expensive vases that were lined up and having to work the rest of his life to pay it off.
Normally, anyways. This man, Senator Fouriva, wouldn’t receive any punishment over something like that.
At any rate, as the person who managed both domestic and foreign affairs under the ruler, there must have been a really good reason for him to be in such a rush.
He was scheduled to attend an audience in the meeting hall between a guest and Cicelnia shortly. But he wasn’t headed there now. Instead, his goal was the office, and as such he was running down the long, familiar hallway.
The distance between the two rooms was quite long, and he was pushing his old body quite a bit to let Cicelnia know that the guest had arrived. This wasn’t normally his job, but this matter had been left to him personally by Cicelnia, so it couldn’t be helped.
By the time he finally arrived at the office, the hem of his gold-embroidered clothes had darkened from all his sweat.
In front of the door were brawny men in armor standing guard. One of them cast a glance at the other, who respectfully knocked on the door in place of the exhausted old man, announcing to the owner of the room that the man had arrived, and asking for their intentions.
The next voice was a young woman’s, in place of the room’s owner. Her voice was one that everyone in this palace knew. It was Cicelnia’s aide, Rinne Kimmel. “Sir Fouriva, please enter.”
When his name was called, the elderly man straightened his clothes in order, stepped into the room, and bowed. “Lady Cicelnia, the Governor-General has come to see you.”
In front of him was a massive desk. And on top of it were vast piles of paper. Countless documents awaiting approval. No, knowing how competent this ruler was, he thought she might already have finished dealing with them all.
Cicelnia slowly raised her head. Her hair, which was the color of night, fluttered and a faint smell of high-quality ink mixed in with the sweet fragrance coming from her hair. “Thank you for coming, Fouriva. I understand. So, I am sorry, but can you go and bring Governor-General Berwick here?”
“What?” Fouriva’s face turned pale at the ruler’s innocent request. He wasn’t sure if he could make another round trip. Besides, the Governor-General had already arrived at the meeting hall. If he didn’t want to keep them waiting, he would need to hurry even more than before.
“Lady Cicelnia, I believe that would be too hard on Senator Fouriva. Moreover, there doesn’t appear to be a need for it.”
Without a moment’s delay, Rinne gave him a helping hand. She’d treated him like an old man, but instead of getting angry Fouriva wanted to thank her for assisting. Though he did believe that saying there was no need to get the Governor-General was a little disrespectful, and he cast a doubtful glance her way.
“I see, and how much longer will it take?”
“Around two minutes.”
Hearing Rinne estimate the amount of time jogged Fouriva’s memory. Rinne was an excellent spotter, known as Alpha’s Eye. And as if to prove that—two minutes later, another knock came on the door as the guards informed them that a guest had arrived.
Rinne responded, and in the next moment the guest, the person at the head of the military, showed his face. Seeing this, Rinne put down cups of tea on the table.
Berwick slowly walked up to Cicelnia and deeply bowed. His unfaltering and dignified appearance showed no openings. He was already at the age where it wouldn’t be strange for him to retire, but his straight posture and perfect salute were that of the model soldier.
“Thank you for answering my summons, Berwick. I could have come over to you as well, though.”
“And I’m sure there would be an uproar if you did. But if you called me over here, it means something has happened, no?” Seeing the senator was also present, Berwick sensed the severity of the situation and braced himself.
“Yes, it is pretty bad. As I am sure you are aware, the Friendship Magical Tournament was approved the other day. However, this time Balmes put on a condition to relax a certain restriction... or rather, he forced through an annulment.”
“By which you mean?”
“An agreement to overlook the recruitment of students of other nations.”
“—!!”
Hearing this, the two men gasped in surprise, though Fouriva was the most shocked. “Princess, if our talented students were to be taken from us, it would lead to a decline in Alpha’s military strength... we have put a lot of funds into the Institute, too.” Fouriva was so taken aback by the news that he didn’t even realize he’d called Cicelnia by her old title.
“Sir Fouriva, I believe Lady Cicelnia is more concerned about something else.”
Fouriva managed the nation’s finances, so he couldn’t immediately put his finger on what Berwick wanted to say. He gave him a questioning look.
Berwick took a deep breath and turned to look at Cicelnia again. “This is about Alus, isn’t it?”
“Yes. He is a student right now and can possibly be recruited as well. Alus himself said he has no interest in that, but we don’t know what means other nations might use, so we can’t let our guard down. To be frank, as long as we have him, Alpha’s military forces will still be superior even if all of our other students are taken.”
Having heard this much, even Fouriva understood the situation. Even compared to all other contestants this year, Alus’ contributions through the years were worth more than that of thousands of regular Magicmasters. And considering what wasn’t officially credited to him alone—such as the reclaiming of the continent—just comparing them felt foolish.
But as a human, he could lose his life in the Outer World at any time. And Fouriva understood that the Outer World was a terrifying place where such a possibility couldn’t be denied. That’s why he couldn’t help but feel that quantity would ultimately be more effective than quality.
However... the ruler and Governor-General showed no signs of sharing his sentiment.
Is this Alus really that powerful? When I last saw him he was just a child... Then again, he didn’t act like one in the slightest. In other words, I couldn’t even see through that, the elderly man thought to himself, but of course he couldn’t say that out loud to these two.
“I find it hard to imagine Alus leaving Alpha, but he could if he wanted to. As you are aware, Alus has already requested retirement once.”
“That is why I am worried. Can you not do something as the Governor-General?”
“I’m using rare books imported from other nations as a reward. Why not use that again?” Berwick suggested, though he suspected it wouldn’t work. The level of knowledge recorded in those books wouldn’t satisfy Alus for much longer.
In fact, the books in Alpha no longer satisfied him, which was why he was importing some from other nations. And he worried that if they continued using this method, the same would apply for the books from other nations.
“I believe that would be difficult. And it would be hard to collect books a Magicmaster of Alus’ caliber would want.” Cicelnia answered like Berwick expected she would. He imagined she wanted some absolute insurance. “The truth is that I heard something interesting about Balmes’ movements. And so I called you out here to discuss how to handle it.”
“By which you mean?”
“Why did Balmes have to go so far as to lift the restriction on recruiting students?” Cicelnia asked, referring to what Alus had let her hear in a roundabout fashion when he spoke to Jean in the carriage after the rulers conference. “... And that is why I want you to pick one of your elites to investigate Balmes.”
Cicelnia was wondering if it was possible to weaken a nation’s ability to recruit students before it could begin. The nation they needed to be the most wary of was Balmes, the one that had suggested the entire thing. Other nations might approach Alus too, but as long as they could pin down Balmes’ movements, they could warn the other nations from making any moves as well.
That’s when the elderly man watching on from the side interrupted, aghast. “You mean to have one of our men illegally enter their nation...? There would be huge repercussions if they were found out.”
“It will be okay, Fouriva. Balmes will have invested a lot of Magicmasters in their operation, so an elite Magicmaster should be able to get through unnoticed. Rinne will help too, will you not?”
“Understood.”
Berwick said nothing, but he believed the chances of success were high. Like Cicelnia said, if a small nation like Balmes had spent over a month on this operation, it had to be a very large-scale one. At the very least, the guard presence on their borders shouldn’t be as high. “Lady Cicelnia, what will you do after the investigation? If Balmes really is struggling, will you offer to help?”
“Yes. Alus would have no problems dealing with it, would he?”
“He wouldn’t, but whether he would accept the mission or not is a different matter.”
“...! He would not?”
“Most likely. Even I have a hard time reading what he really thinks... it took me promising ten books to get him to agree.”
“... That is true. In the worst case, I will have to find a reward from the vault. Surely there would be something there.”
“Are you sure, Lady Cicelnia?”
“Yes, sometimes a sacrifice is necessary. By the way, what promise did you make with him, Berwick?”
“That he participates in the tournament... though he likely anticipates that victory is one of the conditions as well.”
“That is true. I would like for Alpha to secure a victory this time around.”
“The tournament is one thing, but taking on the elimination of Fiends in place of Balmes is quite another.”
“I just hope a reward from the vault would do. Actually, will a monetary reward not do...?”
“If it did, there wouldn’t be a problem.”
Sensing Berwick’s mental exhaustion on the topic, Cicelnia realized that he was right and grimaced.
Fouriva, who had been listening to the ruler and Governor-General in mute amazement, posed an obvious question. “Sir Alus is one of this nation’s Magicmasters, isn’t he? Then why not just order him?”
The next moment, everyone aside from Fouriva sighed.
“A normal Magicmaster is one thing, but Alus is not one to move on a sense of duty. Upon completing his service he immediately requested retirement. He’d only obeyed orders during his service because he knew it was just until he retired. If we tried forcing anything on him, he would, worst case, retire on the spot.” Berwick had no way to hide the bitterness appearing in his expression.
He continued, “That said, he’s far too valuable to let go. I had him enter the Institute so that we could use him in times of emergency. The reason we can send Lettie to the Outer World without concern is because Alus is still here. It might not sound good, but being able to keep him active with bait is better than nothing.”
Fouriva let out a “Hmm,” and reconsidered his perception of Alus. It appeared that Alus’ value far exceeded his imagination. As someone who was old-fashioned, he was sure that all Magicmasters fought for the sake of humanity and their nation, but it seemed there were exceptions to everything.
“For now, let me turn to Vizaist for the infiltration,” Berwick said.
“I see. Lord Vizaist would be able to handle it.”
“Yes, Lady Cicelnia. I believe he would be the best choice. And if we have Lady Rinne’s help, then there’s nothing more we can ask for.” Berwick valued Rinne’s ‘Eye’ and abilities highly. And those weren’t just empty words. With her help, the success of the investigation was all but guaranteed.
That’s when Cicelnia seemed to recall something and turned to Rinne. “Oh, Rinne. I heard that Alus has taken an interest in your ‘Eye.’”
“Huh?! Uhm, well... yes... but...” Rinne sensed something worrying from Cicelnia’s smile, but all she could do was agree.
“A Magic Eye, was it... that does sound like something Alus would take an interest in. I see.” Berwick followed the ruler’s lead and smiled as well.
“What... what are you talking about...?” Rinne asked timidly, but Cicelnia completely ignored her.
“Yes, Alus should be fine. I am sure,” Cicelnia said.
“Indeed, Alus would be able to handle it. I’m sure,” Berwick added.
Seeing the ruler and Governor-General grin only made Rinne’s confusion worse.
* * *
A week had passed since Alus and the others began training for the tournament. And they were beginning to see results, as a lot of the training now took on the form of mock battles. Tesfia’s and Alice’s opponent wasn’t only Alus, but Loki and all kinds of matchups.
Right now, Loki was facing Tesfia and Alice with Alus watching from the sidelines.
The more they fought, the more Alus thought that Tesfia and Alice rated among the top of the nation. Worthy of special mention were their latent senses, or rather their ability to absorb things.
Their adaptability was frighteningly high. The way their breathing was synchronized and the way they cooperated without having been shown how to do so were things to be amazed by.
The more matches they fought, the more injuries Loki was taking, though they were mere grazes.
Alice would also time her Reflection well to reflect the attacks back. This Reflection spell was very helpful in battles against people. However, when the difference in ability was too great, using it was difficult. The more powerful the attack, the more mana it took to reflect it.
Moreover, Alus wasn’t just observing Tesfia and Alice. Loki was improving considerably as well, and her potential was returning to the levels she was at when she was in active duty.
She was making instantaneous decisions as her senses grew sharper to sway the match further in her favor. The speed of her series of actions was improving at an accelerated rate. In other words, her battle senses and selection of magic was growing more refined. That was also in part because of her sparring with Alus.
Loki was overwhelming in terms of speed, and now she instantly disappeared from in front of Tesfia and Alice to get behind them.
A beat later, the two girls turned around, and Loki muttered the spell name in a gotcha moment.
“‹‹Flash››”
A ball of lightning floated before their eyes. The white light from the flash filled the room, dazzling them.
While they covered their eyes, it would take a few seconds for their vision to return. Tesfia and Alice blindly swung their AWRs, but there was no way they could make contact.
That said, this was training, so Loki didn’t attack them. When their vision returned, they hurriedly searched for Loki. Finding her some distance away, they saw Loki was smiling.
Despite the prickling pain in their eyes, they ran toward Loki, who pulled out a knife from her waist and held it up high.
Seeing this, Tesfia and Alice looked down at the ground with cold sweat running down their backs.
“Oh no?!”
“—!! Not this pattern again...”
The two realized they’d been lured in when they saw the seven knives stuck in the ground around them.
The next moment—Loki mercilessly swung down her AWR.
Each knife handle had a hole in it, which a bolt of lightning passed through to form an electromagnetic field in a circle that then surged up into the air.
Looking up, they saw lightning hanging in the air, and—
“‹‹Lightning››”
In the blink of an eye, light filled the area as the lightning crackled.
The lightning discharged, and the electricity ran across the ground, knocking the fight out of the two girls in an instant.
Being on the training grounds meant the damage was converted, but it was still a shock.
Tesfia and Alice fell on their bottoms and held their heads, scowling from the dull pain.
“Triple Digits really are on a different level. I don’t think we could ever win even two against one,” Tesfia said, admitting defeat, as she pressed her temples with her fingers.
“Right? I thought we were becoming able to put up a good fight, but you’re getting even stronger, aren’t you, Loki dear?” Alice noted, standing up by using her naginata for support.
“I wonder,” Loki muttered, and turned to look at Alus in hopes for an answer.
“She was close to a Double in abilities, so perhaps her senses are just coming back to her,” Alus observed.
“So it seems,” Loki said, now with a spring in her voice, as she smiled at Tesfia and Alice.
Tesfia sighed. “I’m already used to it, but it’s still frustrating.”
“I know, right?” Alice said.
Getting used to defeat was one thing, but seeing the girls’ wry smiles, Alus sighed and spoke out. “If you’re used to it, then stop falling for your opponent’s traps. Besides, blindly attacking after losing your vision is foolish.”
In the Outer World there were plenty of Fiends that used light, mud, venom, or other underhanded moves to blind people. And when that happened, it was common for novices to panic and act recklessly.
Against Fiends it was possible to work together and cover for each other’s openings, but against another human they would be attacked while they couldn’t see. So during times like those, it was smarter to get away and wait for your vision to recover.
“It might be two of you now, but when you fight one on one it’s better to choose a spell that would buy you time to recover your vision,” Alus said.
“You’re as knowledgeable on fighting as always.” Tesfia was sloppily sitting on the ground, and she tilted her head backwards to look at Alus upside down, not minding that her hair was touching the ground.
“This is just common sense. If you pick up some knowledge, it will help you in your time of need.”
“Hmm, I see... then, sorry, but we’ll take a break here, and you can go next. It’s pretty pitiful to admit, but training with Al should be better for you too, right Loki?” Tesfia said.
“Yes,” Alice said, as she came up behind Alus and pushed him from behind.
They were right on that point. A person’s mana stores didn’t increase that fast. And the two girls still didn’t have enough mana to keep fighting without rest. They astutely figured that Alus could take their place while they rested. Besides, just being able to observe a match between Loki and Alus would be a good lesson for them.
“Go on, go have Loki work you over,” Tesfia said with a mischievous smile.
That’s when an unfamiliar voice intruded on the harmonious atmosphere. “Hmm, Alus and Ms. Loki, huh? This will be a show. Actually, how strong is Alus exactly? Everyone else seems to rate him pretty lowly, but isn’t that strange?”
“That’s because the principal told us to keep it a secret so that he wouldn’t be exposed. Unfortunately, not even Loki will be able to take on Al,” Tesfia answered the question casually thrown her way.
When she did, the questioner’s voice asked in confusion, “Huh? Why would you bring up the principal?”
“Why, because... huh?!” It wasn’t until now that Tesfia finally realized who she was talking to. “Ciel?!” she shouted out in surprise, and as she was still looking backwards, she saw Ciel crouch down with a perplexed look, upside down.
Alus planted his face in his palm.
Loki looked over to Alus to try and calm him down, but she could see his eyes twitch.
When Alice saw this, she looked away and feigned ignorance.
Even though the partitioning was darkened for the sake of secrecy, as long as the ones training inside were students, it couldn’t be locked. That said, not many would carelessly enter. Even if they were to enter, they would use the bell outside first, but Ciel seemed to have heard that Alus and the others were training and had come in without warning, out of curiosity.
Tesfia was the only one that hadn’t caught on to that. Alus had tried to be considerate by keeping the training content a secret, but she had just thrown it all down the drain. She fell silent with an awkward smile frozen on her face.
“Hm? Was I not supposed to come in?” Ciel asked in a cutesy manner.
With her smile still frozen over, Tesfia’s gaze slowly drifted to Alus’ sullen face, and seeing that, she panicked and tried to follow up. “Uhm, actually, Al has some pretty complicated family circumstances... and the principal and all of us thought it would be best to keep that a secret...”
“Hmm, do training and family circumstances really have something in common? And what do you mean that not even Ms. Loki would be able to take him on?”
When Ciel asked this, Tesfia knew that she had no escape. She grabbed hold of Ciel’s shoulders and shook her with tears in her eyes. “Please forget everything you just heard!! I’m begging you!” She had to avoid exposing that Alus was the ranked No. 1 no matter what. Even the principal had forced her to keep quiet about it, and seeing as how she used to be a Single Digit Magicmaster, that fact put an immense pressure on Tesfia who was a mere student.
With Tesfia’s eyes getting moist, Ciel was practically forced to agree.
Alus felt another headache coming on. However, he’d had a hunch this would happen after the selection matches. Or rather, he hadn’t accurately read Ciel’s abilities, and ended up showing too much of his own.
“I guess I revealed a little too much. Ms. Ciel...” With a soft expression and smile, Alus slowly walked over to Ciel.
He bent over a little to lower his line of sight to more closely match the small Ciel’s, and Ciel had an expression of blank surprise.
Alus whispered into her ear, “Sorry about this, but I want you to not say a word about anything you’ve seen today, especially not anything about me. If you do, you might even end up losing your place in this Institute in the worst case. You just got chosen as a contestant, too. I’d feel bad about it if something like that happened to a classmate.”
“Uhm, am I being threatened? Seriously?” Ciel asked in a frightened voice. Her smile had gotten stiff due to the strange intensity in Alus’ voice.
“Who knows? But I’m sure you’ll benefit more from not saying anything, Ms. Ciel. How about if you keep quiet, I’ll give you some more advice on your training?”
The surrounding air seemed to freeze over. Alus wore a friendly smile, but his eyes were narrowed, and he could see fear in Ciel’s eyes.
She trembled and nodded, as if she was prey being stared down by a predator.
He patted her on the shoulder with a now normal expression, and then let out a sigh. Alus was partially responsible for showing too much of his hand during the selection matches, but he would make sure to remember that Tesfia owed him.
“Now then, let’s begin... or so I would say, but I don’t have an AWR with me.” Alus purposefully glanced over at Tesfia.
“Okay, I get it.” And as he did, she reluctantly surrendered her precious katana.
Alus took it and spoke in satisfaction, “Good. This should be able to handle my mana output. Loki has an affinity for the lightning attribute, so taking her on with a different attribute should work fine. Well, it’s not like it’s mine, so I’ll have to manage even if it’s hard to use.”
“Don’t break it, okay? It’s a family heirloom, you know!”
“I’m not going to screw up like that,” Alus retorted, as he turned around to walk to the center of the partition.
“Huh?! What about Fia? Is it really going to be a one on one against Ms. Loki?” Ciel had a dubious look on her face, unable to accept this. Just looking at the rankings, Loki was at the top of the Institute, an exceptional existence. And while she might sense something undefinable about Alus, she still questioned it.
“Just come over here, Ciel,” Tesfia said, inviting her over to a corner of the partition.
“Why not just watch from a little closer...?” Ciel asked, confused.
The other two must not have heard Ciel muttering, as they showed no signs of taking this lightly. In fact, they were intently staring at the center of the arena so as not to miss a moment.
Ciel felt guilty about getting in the way, seeing how serious they were, but she still asked the two about Alus’ previous threat. “H-Hey. That expulsion thing was a lie, right? I was so... surprised... I...”
“...” “...”
She felt the silence from the two girls said it all. It was hard to believe, but it appeared that she was somewhere where the peaceful Institute atmosphere didn’t exist.
“Well, you’ll understand when you see it,” Tesfia said, which prompted Ciel to gulp.
The next moment, a thin magical barrier covered them.
“What is this?!” Ciel exclaimed in surprise, looking around her.
“It’s Al’s barrier. We wouldn’t be able to watch safely without it,” Alice explained, and poked the barrier from the inside. When she did, a ripple spread across the surface.
Ciel tried touching it as well, but she had no idea how it worked. She felt like it was similar to the training grounds walls, but she also felt like she was being protected by a mysterious force.
The three stared at the center of the arena from behind the protective barrier. In front of them were Alus and Loki facing each other down.
“Thank you for this opportunity, Sir Alus.”
“It’s just training as usual, so do what you always do. I’ll be using the ice attribute though.” Alus pulled at the katana in his hand and showed a glimpse of the blade sticking out of the sheath.
“Huuuh?!” Suddenly, Ciel let out a bewildered voice. And that was only natural. When Alus did that, the scenery before her turned into a snowscape in an instant.
The ground was growing ever colder and freezing over; even the air was freezing over. If not for the barrier, Ciel and the others would surely be encased in ice.
Just how cold was it on the other side?
But that thought only lingered in Ciel’s head for a moment, as lightning bolts struck the thin ice lining the ground, creating a white smoke.
Two silhouettes could be seen moving inside the smoke at speeds difficult to even perceive. Ciel couldn’t imagine herself ever reaching that level of expertise. Witnessing the battle taking place in front of her, she understood what Tesfia had meant.
Alus cut across the frozen ground, and wherever the blade passed, sharp icicles popped out. A line of icicles ran across the ground like a fissure, heading straight for Loki.
“Ice Pillars!!” Tesfia shouted with sparkling eyes. Her voice was full of excitement, as if she’d forgotten her previous misstep. “If only I could do that...!” While she sounded frustrated, her heart leaped with joy over being able to see such a wonderful ice attribute spell.
“You’ve gotten faster at evading by not relying on your eyes,” Alus noted.
Loki easily dodged the spell, and Alus analyzed her dodging speed. It was probably the result of her mana sonar eliminating any blind spots. Because she quickly recognized the coordinates for the spell, she was of course able to take evasive maneuvers early on.
That said—those maneuvers were exaggerated. If she wasn’t up against Alus, they could even be called overly cautious. Because of her continuous use of her sonar, Loki’s mana stores were running low.
“For now, let’s keep up the battle. And you should try to get the hang of when to use the sonar to get the most use out of it.”
“Yes!” Loki answered in a lively voice, in between her rough breaths.
“Now then, what will you do next?” Alus pointed upwards.
Loki had been well aware of it, but since it had been set up while she was evading, she didn’t have the space to do anything about it.
The three girls behind the barrier followed Alus’ finger and looked up. The training ground ceiling was packed full of massive icicles that had seemingly appeared from out of nowhere.
“What is that?!” Ciel reflexively screamed out at the sight of a spell she’d never seen before. She glanced over at Tesfia, hoping for an explanation.
“That’s Despair Execute!” Tesfia cried.
What would happen to the person below if all of those icicles rained down at the same time? The image of it was truly despair-inducing. Certain death. A perfect fit for its name.
But as she said the name, Tesfia realized that it was somewhat different from the spell she had knowledge of. The ceiling was full of sharp icicles, but it was a step short of perfect. At the very least it seemed somewhat inferior to the Despair Execute she knew. Alus must have left gaps in the icicles and kept the power low.
Though she realized it, Alus’ next move made Tesfia close her mouth before she could say anything.
Alus swung down the katana, and all of the icicles fell down at the same time.
The sharp tips rained down onto the training grounds. Loki immediately tried to fight them off with electricity surrounding her body. Though she managed to destroy some of them, she was far from getting all of them.
A terrific sound rang out as the countless icicles slammed into the ground, creating a white smoke that filled the arena. Before long, the icicles that had done their job crumbled and dispersed.
At some point, Alus had disappeared.
A torrent of remnant mana flew about, and the three were concerned about Loki who had disappeared in all the smoke, but they soon realized that she was safe.
The reason they knew was because they heard the metallic sounds of AWRs clashing in the smoke. But even the sound of exchanges stopped soon enough.
And the three girls caught a glimpse of Loki defeated on the ground.
“You ran out of mana,” Alus said.
“I’m sorry.”
Alus reached out with his hand, but Loki’s eyes were downcast as if she was ashamed.
“No way?! He won against a Triple Digit!” Ciel rubbed her eyes, and even pinched her cheeks at the sight.
“Now do you understand why Al is training us?” Alice said with pride.
Ciel’s jaw remained dropped for a while, until she came back to her senses and pleaded with Tesfia and Alice that she wouldn’t tell anyone. She’d realized that the gag order from the principal as well as Alus’ threat were very real.
“Yeah, I’d be happy if you didn’t. My own position would be in danger if Al’s abilities were exposed before the tournament,” Tesfia said with an uncomfortable expression. It appeared she still felt responsible for what happened before.
“Ciel, it’s not just us asking you to keep quiet about this. This is what the principal wants too,” Alice said.
“Aaaaaahhhh, I can’t hear anything, I don’t see anything!!”
Alice’s pushing the point made Ciel realize how serious the situation was, and how far beyond her it was. So she covered her ears by reflex.
Some time passed, and as Alus was getting ready to do more training, he looked around. “Where’d the little one go, by the way?”
“That’s an awful way to refer to her as soon as she’s gone. She said she didn’t want to know any more and hurried off,” Tesfia told him.
“That’s because you blurted something out without thinking. If she ran off, then keep watch on her. What if she leaks it to someone else?” Alus said, but he felt she’d gotten it after he threatened her. She wasn’t dimwitted enough to not pick up on Alus’ bottomless strength after seeing his mock battle against Loki.
“She didn’t run away, she ran off to get her AWR. She wanted you to teach her,” Alice said.
“What?” It appeared Alus had misunderstood. Ciel wasn’t dimwitted, but greedy. “Well, whatever. I think I remember hearing her saying something like that. There’s only a little time left before the tournament, so I might as well give her some advice.”
There was a hint of gloom mixed in with his words, and Loki quickly called out to him in a cheerful tone. “Sir Alus, she might not be very useful, but the tournament is a team event. If she takes your teachings to heart, she might be able to contribute to a victory.”
Having gone this far, they had at least managed to stop Ciel from spreading Alus’ secret. Loki imagined that Alus giving Ciel advice was not so much because of their compromise, but because of good will after having acknowledged her efforts. She felt like he was searching for a reason to convince himself.
“Wow, you say such mean things as if they were nothing, Loki dear,” Alice said with a bitter smile. But Loki looked like she wanted to say she’d only told the truth.
“That aside,” Tesfia interjected, “I have to ask... how can you use other attributes freely like that? Even advanced spells.”
“Don’t lump me in with those second-rates. The two elements aside, the affinity is not all that important. Even the bare minimum level of what you could call a Magicmaster can at least manage to cast a basic spell of any attribute. It’s just stupidly mana inefficient.”
That said, Alus hadn’t used a novice level spell. Even those with an affinity for ice magic struggled to cast a spell of that kind of power with such ease. It was only possible to cast spells with that kind of firepower if you had vast amounts of mana, combined with mana control skills on par with it.
“You guys can cast a novice level Arrow spell of any element too, can’t you?”
Alus’ example caused the girls to object. “Even then, its power is only half of what it usually is. And when it comes to intermediate spells, we can’t use any other attribute. In fact, I’ve never seen a Magicmaster that could, aside from you,” Tesfia said, and Alice nodded in agreement next to her.
“That’s why I’m telling you that mana control is the important part. I believe that Magicmasters should focus the most on perfecting mana control rather than learning a bunch of different spells at random. That said, that alone won’t let you freely use other attributes.”
Alus was almost happy to see that Ciel wasn’t back yet, and continued his lecture. “An affinity means that your mana’s nature is leaning towards one direction. So Fia, in your case, because of that tendency your body’s mana is more suitable for ice magic. So you could say that your body has been optimized to use the ice attribute.”
Tesfia committed Alus’ words to memory, her fingers twitching like she was using a non-existent pen to write them down.
Of course, Alus ignored her gesturing and went on. To him, these were the very basics. “This might be something only I can pull off, but you should at least know about it. Everyone has an affinity, but I’m attribute-less after all. The reason you guys can’t use other attributes is because you’re pretty much trying to use fire magic with mana suited for ice magic. In other words, as long as you can control the nature of your mana, you can get a grasp on all the attributes.”
This felt like the kind of moment when they should’ve let out an impressed wow, but the girls did no such thing. That was because they couldn’t imagine themselves reaching that level. Though Loki gazed at him in admiration as always.
“In my case, I trained on controlling the mana’s nature as part of my mana control training. So I can’t say that you’ll never be able to do it, though it’s just a possibility.” Alus had become able to use magic of all kinds of attributes, but the only successful example he had was himself. He had no foundation on which to make certain statements.
That said, Single Digits and other capable Magicmasters were able to use advanced spells of attributes that were closely related to their own. Either way, mana control was something that would help any Magicmaster throughout their entire life.
Realizing that this topic might have been a little too unproductive, Alus prepared to move on and discuss something else.
In that moment, the sound of footsteps rang out through the training grounds. Looking over to the origin of the sounds, he saw Ciel. Her breathing was ragged, and her cheeks were flushed as if she was really excited, as she stood clutching her staff AWR.
“S-So sorry this is so sudden, but can you tell me where I should start, Alus?” Ciel asked, full of drive, her eyes sparkling.
Alus took a deep breath and scratched the back of his head. He reasoned to himself that there was no difference between teaching two and teaching three. Besides, he’d already fought Ciel once before during the selection matches, so he had a good idea of where to begin. In a sense, he was killing two birds with one stone.
“Ms. Ciel, let me just start by saying that the earth attribute has few attack spells, so you should begin by perfecting Thorn Pierce.” Ice Pillars was pretty much an application of Thorn Pierce. Alus could immediately tell that the Thorn Pierce Ciel had used during the selection matches was far from perfected.
“So you noticed, huh. Also, you don’t need to add the ‘Ms.’ Just address me like Fia or Alice! You’re probably being considerate, but you really don’t have to, okay? You can just act like normal.”
“Then I’ll start right away.” Alus switched gears so fast that one had to ask if he’d been feeling stressed by faking it. “So to cut straight to the point, during the selection match you drew a line on the ground, right? Meaning, you’re probably defining the coordinates in your vision, and using that information to construct the spell. That’s proof that you’re relying very heavily on an image when constructing a spell. That’s why your spells are shaky.”
Alus’ remark was spot on, and Ciel struggled to say anything back. “But... that’s intermediate magic. If I don’t do that, then there’s too much information for me... even if I start training now, I’m not going to manage to perfect it before the tournament.”
He would have loved to not have to go into an explanation, but it was the Magicmaster education system that had omitted this, so he couldn’t blame her for not knowing. “The complete version is an intermediate spell, but you can lower the difficulty to reach it. Do you even know what kind of spell Thorn Pierce is?”
Ciel puffed up her chest and delivered her answer in high spirits. “Spiky things like shoot up from the ground a la dadada, and like, attack right away!”
“Huh?” Alus couldn’t help but exclaim in surprise. It appeared this girl relied on sensations even more than Tesfia. He worried if he was even going to be able to explain it, and though he didn’t say anything, it showed on his face.
Tesfia and Alice, knowing what kind of person Ciel was, must have anticipated her answer. They showed no surprise, only dry smiles.
Even Loki had a wry smile over her simplistic answer, though she hid it behind Alus’ back so nobody could tell.
“Eh? Did I get it wrong?”
“Well, you’re not entirely wrong... probably.” The ‘dadada’ part probably referred to the many sharpened rocks springing up, so that shouldn’t be a problem. At this point, Alus felt like the theory he lived by wasn’t going to get through to her. Trying to forget this, he continued on regardless. “Well, anyways... One might think that Thorn Pierce is multiple sharp rocks flying out, but it requires the same kind of shape designation like the Ice Pillars I used. But it doesn’t actually need to be that many of them. So don’t focus so much on numbers, and try to properly define one or two of them.”
“O-Okay.”
“In fact, you should start in the classroom.”
The moment Alus gave his verdict, a look of despair appeared on Ciel’s face.
And so a few more days of training passed with Ciel showing up now and again. However, Alus didn’t tag along with their training every day. That was because he was getting to a good part in his research.
He was also heading over to Folen to check on the progress of the AWR he’d ordered from Budna more often, and was coming home in the morning most of the time.
Whenever he couldn’t be at the training, Loki was there as his representative. Nobody found it strange that the student after Felinella in the rankings was serving as an instructor.
As a digression, Ciel’s parent had used her AWR before her. Alus had thought it was quite old when he saw it, but that explained it. That said, it had seen a bit of customization over the years, and it suited Ciel more than the AWRs the Institute lent out.
Like Alus had expected, her training wasn’t taking much time. If anything, things had gone in an unexpected direction, as a certain someone was also showing their face.
This girl was someone he knew, and he couldn’t flat out reject her. In fact, he even owed her.
“Can I ask you today again, Mr. Alus?” She would sneak in just before the training grounds closed for the day and show her face. Her expression looked half apologetic and half happy. Though the constant smile on her lips made it clear she looked forward to it every time.
“Feli, huh. Good work helping out until this hour.”
“Everyone’s going out of their way to rely on me, so I’d at least like to watch over the prescribed number of students.”
“Is that so? I wouldn’t be that considerate.” The prescribed number was only supposed to be two people, but he didn’t want to bring that up.
That said, when Felinella first showed up, Tesfia, Alice, and Ciel all nervously showed off their enthusiasm. It appeared they had mistaken her appearance for an inspection, but that had been a needless worry.
In the end, the reason Felinella had shown up was because she wanted to ask Alus to look over her own training. So she would appear thirty minutes before the training grounds closed and train in live combat whenever Alus was there.
Ciel was completely amazed when she saw Alus deflecting Felinella’s spells without breaking a sweat. In fact, he was even lecturing her while he did it.
Just who is Alus, really?
Every time that thought entered her mind, Ciel shook her head to chase off any unnecessary thinking. No, no, I can’t think about something unnecessary, she told herself, and continued observing the battle. After all, it wasn’t a sight you could see any day.
Right after Felinella and Alus’ sparring ended...
“Feli, can I go next? I want to try as many different opponents as I can,” Tesfia said.
“Me too, please,” Alice said.
“Felinella... if possible, can I...” Ciel timidly raised her hand.
Only Loki showed no real reaction as she looked on.
“Uhm...” Felinella glanced over to Alus with a troubled look, as the girls pushed themselves on her. She felt bad that they were flocking to her when the overwhelmingly stronger Alus was right there. But the reply she got was a single nod that showed he didn’t seem to care.
Seeing this, Felinella glanced back to the three girls and smiled. “Okay.”
“However, Feli is here to train herself, so make it one person per day.”
“Yes! That should do. Thank you very much.” A big smile appeared on Felinella’s face after hearing Alus’ suggestion. She always acted like a model student, so the three girls were a little surprised at her animated expression.
Alus tried to reply with a wry smile, but because he wasn’t used to it, he failed splendidly.
Since the tournament was against other people, he wanted them to spar against as many different attributes as possible. There was a limit to what Alus could do; besides the gap in their abilities was far too wide.
While no attribute was absolute, each had its strengths and weaknesses. Water and ice had a disadvantage against lightning, with fire being superior. That’s why training with that in mind would be effective. So Felinella’s help was the best thing Alus could ask for.
* * *
When Alus wasn’t at the training grounds, Principal Sisty seemed to show up as if to take his place, not that she intended to. And on the afternoons that she showed up, she would be showered with the enthusiastic voices of the students.
As a former Single, their words of admiration filled the training grounds every time.
Compared to the noisy students, the teachers minded their manners far more. That was because they knew the reality of what she’d achieved, and because they feared her.
One day, the principal watched over the training until the end of the training time, and the students were understandably excited. Out of the ten partitions, eight were left open, and in most of them contestants were training individually. And Sisty was going through and inspecting all of them.
Some were doing combat training, and others were practicing spells. But the one thing they all had in common was the tension in their faces.
Yet Sisty was going around showing her appreciation for the students with an encouraging smile. She called out to them and politely gave them guidance in a gentle voice. Looking at her now, she seemed more a saint than her alias of Witch.
As she did her rounds for the day, Sisty spotted some unexpected faces. “Oh, you girls are here, too? Where is Alus?”
“He’s out on personal business today. Then again, today’s training is something we can do without him... Ms. Loki is also watching over us,” Tesfia told her.
“Now that I think about it, Al did say we should have the principal look us over too,” Alice added.
Sisty had furrowed her brows at Alus’ absence, but it had been needless worry. At the same time she noticed the presence of one more girl. “Oh, you are Ms. Ciel, aren’t you? You’re here, too?”
“—! Yesh!” With the principal addressing her directly, Ciel stood at attention with a blush on her face.
“I understand. So what should I look at?”
Ciel demonstrated her Thorn Pierce as if to answer Sisty’s question. While it was imperfect, Sisty was impressed by the ingenuity that went into it.
I see. An intermediate spell is difficult for a first-year student, but if she uses it like this... She was surprised by this unexpected use, while also wanting to commend Alus.
As a former Single, she could easily imagine the meaning and effect his advice would have for Ciel. She felt like she still had much to learn at this age, which made her a little happy. How many of our teachers could guide the students to these kinds of ideas... well, it’s probably impossible for this lineup.
Sisty pushed those thoughts away and gave Ciel advice to strive for further heights. She wasn’t quite on Alus’ level, but she could pick up on points of improvement after seeing Ciel’s movements just once.
With that, Ciel’s turn was over, and it was now Tesfia’s and Alice’s turn.
Sisty was surprised by how much Ciel had improved, so she was looking forward to what had become of these two.
“So, uhm... we would like it if you would look at our mock battle,” Tesfia politely said.
Sisty nodded, but she realized Loki was here too. So she glanced her way as if to ask if she would also join in.
Loki answered, “I am fine, so please watch over those two.”
“What? You’re not going to join in, Loki dear?”
Seeing her say no, Tesfia and Alice exchanged glances, wondering what to do. “Then, should we do it, just the two of us?” Tesfia asked.
“Yes!” Alice responded.
The two were on the same wavelength and quickly figured out what to do. They entered an open partition alongside Sisty. When they did, they could feel the eyes of the other contestants of all class years on them. It was a mock battle between two beauties, with the principal herself inspecting them. It was only natural that they’d grab everyone’s interest.
That said, the students didn’t come too close, restraining themselves due to Sisty’s presence.
Sisty herself was filled with expectation and curiosity over how Alus’ personal students had developed. However, her expectations were quickly blown away. “No way!”
Having seen Tesfia’s and Alus’ first fight, Sisty could immediately tell by pure intuition at the start of the match that Tesfia was incomparable to how she’d been back then. It was like she was a completely different person.
Her footwork and other movements were all suited for combat, having evolved into the movements of a veteran. The spells Tesfia used were still clumsy, but Sisty could tell that effort had clearly gone into them. Moreover, she was continuing to fight while maintaining the advanced spell Icicle Sword, the result of a high level of skill in mana control.
She was also not expending too much excess mana, so there were no signs of her running out like she had at the beginning of the year. In fact, it looked like she still had some leeway despite using this much.
Then there was Alice’s slash of light. That truly surprised Sisty, as it was a spell she had never seen before.
It was similar to the wind spell Kamaitachi, but its power and effects were quite different. She’d exceeded the level of a top scoring first-year student and should be more quickly found when looking at the top of all the students. She particularly excelled in complex mana control.
Sisty felt exalted. As a teacher, there was nothing more delightful than this. At the same time, it was like their growth reflected Alus’ own.
“To think he did this...” Sisty found herself softly mumbling. It felt like witnessing an uncontrollable delinquent becoming a parental figure.
She’d been the one to set him up for it. She felt a little bashful, but couldn’t hide her joy.
A refreshing smile appeared on her face, as she realized that putting these two girls under Alus’ wing was the right choice.
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