Twenty-Seventh Chapter
The Puppet’s Orchesis
At the same time as Alus and the others were taking their baths...
To the west of Iblis’ stadium was one of the seven hotel buildings surrounding the stadium. This one belonged to the nation of Rusalca.
The contestants of the First Magical Institute were gathered in one of the rooms, holding a discussion. It was already night, but the lively talk on how they would win the tournament was still going on.
“It’s not Alpha we need to worry about. In terms of point totals, Iblis is on our heels, and we need to take some measures right away,” said a male student, offering his opinion.
But a female student rebutted him. “You’re overestimating them. Like we figured out during our investigation, this is about as far as Iblis’ Fourth Magical Institute’s advance is going to go. They should be dropping in numbers from the second round onward. Instead, it’s Alpha’s Second Magical Institute that is making certain steps towards victory.”
There were also those who offered completely different opinions, with supporters of the various opinions flipping back and forth, and the discussion showed no signs of reaching a conclusion.
And of course it wouldn’t. All 30 contestants from Rusalca had gathered to talk about what they could do to bring victory to their homeland.
While they were currently the top scorers, they couldn’t relax with the slight lead they had. If they were careless they might lose their lead by tomorrow.
“Still, to think nine of Alpha’s first-years would win their first round... that was completely unexpected!” The contestants’ leader, second-year student Karia Ferrard, bit her nails in frustration and furrowed her brow. “At this rate, their first-years will secure most of the tournament slots. Our strategy of leaving affinity match-ups for later backfired on us.”
They could see possible paths to victory, but unfortunately things weren’t going entirely to plan. The third-years would at the very least have two contestants with plenty of chances to win, but the second-year division would face last year’s winner, Felinella Socalent.
Karia herself had suffered a bitter defeat at Felinella’s hands last year, so she’d taken measures this year, but Felinella would most likely make it into the main tournament. After all, she would already anticipate that they would take her wind attribute magic into account, and she hadn’t faced the First Magical Institute in the first round.
And there were two more problematic students from the Second Magical Institute’s first-year division. “Two of them ended their matches in a flash,” Karia continued. “The details are unknown because there wasn’t enough time to gather information, but Alus Reigin, who beat the record time, didn’t even use his AWR. We honestly have nothing on him...”
“Should we at least move to crush him early?” the male student asked.
“We should probably avoid doing that.” Karia rejected that idea, and the male student looked at her, wondering if she’d lost her nerve. “I know I called it five seconds, but the truth is that his opponent collapsed just two seconds after the signal. It took more time for the verdict to be rendered.”
“—!!” The male student was astonished.
“We just have nothing to go on. Throwing our strongest card at him will be too risky,” Karia concluded.
“Then what do we do?”
All of the contestants turned to Karia at the male student’s question. As Rusalca’s First Magical Institute was looking to secure another victory, they should be worrying about Iblis’ Fourth Magical Institute. But just before they’d held their first meeting they received information to keep their guard up around Alpha’s Second Magical Institute.
They immediately got to work investigating potential threats, and they came up with the daughter of an upper noble, but that was it. Having also gathered information on Iblis and the other nations, they’d concluded that Alpha wasn’t all that threatening and hadn’t paid much attention to them.
Karia was said to be without peer in the First Magical Institute, and after considering everything with her eyes shut for a few moments, she slowly opened her eyes. “We should keep our guard up against Alpha’s Second Magical Institute for the time being... we’ll focus on their third-years. Their scores are catastrophic. If they had secured as many wins as our institute in the first round, it might already be over.”
They could still manage at this point in time. They still had cards to play. After all, they still had him. He was still a first-year student, but everyone acknowledged his talent and skills, treating him as the nation’s hope.
As long as he can make it to the main tournament... no, I guess that’s a pointless worry, Karia thought to herself, as she looked over at a certain male student.
The other contestants followed her eyes to stare at this student as well.
Karia then slowly asked him, “Fillic... How do you think Alpha’s Second Magical Institute will move?”
This first-year student, Fillic, was leaning against the wall with his arms crossed and eyes closed, seemingly deep in thought.
Yet... “... Fillic? Fillic Argan!”
“Huh?!”
Karia finally received a bewildered response from him. At the same time, Fillic looked at Karia as if to ask ‘what were we talking about again?’
Despite everyone discussing in lively tones, it seemed that he hadn’t listened to a thing they’d said. It was a very arrogant attitude to take, but nobody here would reproach him for it. That was because not only was he a Triple Digit as a first-year student, but he was also receiving direct guidance from Rusalca’s famed Single.
But the biggest reason of all was his placid expression. That guileless look left people dumbfounded, taking away any anger they might have felt.
While he looked innocent, the atmosphere around him was just the opposite in battle. He turned aggressive and impulsive, and his mental brakes would disappear in a moment’s notice, sending him on a rampage. The transformation would send chills up observers’ spines.
However, normally, he had the demeanor of an ordinary student, and even now he sported a carefree smile beneath his characteristic reddish-brown hair.
Karia sighed and repeated her question. “I said, how do you think Alpha will move?”
“Alpha, is it? It’s pretty simple, they’re going to work to crush us. It appears they have an ace up their sleeve... and they’re a first-year like me,” Fillic said, and it just so happened that the person that set the record time was a first-year student. If Fillic was right, there was someone very powerful in Alpha’s first-year division.
As far as Karia was concerned, if Fillic was making an assertion like that he must have a basis for it, but she didn’t ask about it. Fillic had his own thoughts, and Karia respected that. Put another way, Karia trusted in Fillic’s strength.
So the next question she asked Fillic was exceedingly simple. “Can you win?”
A fearless smile appeared on Fillic’s face at the question, but the answer he gave was vague. “I wonder... but I would love to fight him.”
Everyone was a little surprised by that answer. His rank was in the 400s as a first-year student, and senior students were one thing, but it was hard to imagine that Fillic would fall behind someone his own age. They all estimated that his skills were actually higher than his rank, and were unable to even imagine how much stronger he’d gotten since his rank had been judged the last time.
While the room erupted in lively talk, Fillic leaned back against the wall and boldly asked, “What about you, Karia, will you be able to win against that Felinella Socalent?”
“A foolish question. I’ve spent the last year training just for that. I’ve also taken measures for that sake.”
“I hope you can make up for last year’s loss,” Fillic said with a smile, though without hostility. He’d seen through Karia’s bold front that she was putting up for the other contestants.
In reality, Karia didn’t believe she would defeat Felinella without any problems.
“What are you going to do? Will you remove me from the seed slot and put me in tomorrow’s matches? If we don’t hurry up and crush Alpha’s Second, we might not be able to stop them. If something were to happen to you, it might all be over.”
“...” Fillic had stirred up Karia’s anxiety. But as this team’s leader, she had no choice but to be careful.
While Karia pondered the matter, Fillic rushed her on. “So? What will you do?”
If things went as Fillic expected, Alpha’s Second Magical Institute would secure most of the slots for the main tournament. Because of that, Fillic needed to advance into the main tournament. If the opponent secured four slots, then they would have next to no chance of winning.
If they could at least secure one slot... the Second Magical Institute’s third-years had had devastating results, so their second-years would need to earn points to make up for it. So if Karia could defeat their ace, Felinella, they still had a chance.
Having made up her mind, Karia spoke up, making her choice as the Institute’s representative.
After Karia gave her decision, the long strategy meeting finally came to an end, and Fillic was walking back to his hotel room alone. He was frustrated and the arrogant look on his face had disappeared. Instead, he seemed to be brooding over something.
He was repeating the same thing over and over in his mind. Alus Reigin... there’s no way he could be the strongest. There’s no way any Magicmaster could be stronger than Sir Jean. Especially not someone my age! What a terrible joke!
Fillic had heard that name from Jean Rumbulls, the man he practically worshiped and had one-sidedly declared to be his mentor for life. It was information Jean had gathered in the course of his bodyguard mission, and realizing that it was important, Fillic had taken it to heart.
After giving Fillic that name, Jean advised him to stay in the seeded slot so that he wouldn’t be taken down.
Fillic probably should have told all of this to Karia, but his pride wouldn’t allow it, so he came up with another reason so he could be put in the seeded slot.
But now—Fillic had had a change of heart. Like Jean had alluded to, Alus Reigin might indeed have abilities equivalent to a Single. But him being the ranked No. 1 was clearly questionable, to Fillic anyway, and he wondered if he was a fake.
He’d heard rumors that there were nations that tampered with Magicmaster rankings to maintain national pride. Fillic was convinced that Alpha was a nation that used these underhanded methods.
I don’t know what kind of cheap trick Alpha used... but I’ll expose their true colors.
Looking at the numbers alone, Fillic’s ranking was in the 400s, but he took pride in his own growth. While he stood no chance of winning, he had become at least able to put up a fight against his mentor.
That’s why, even if he went up against a Single, he didn’t think he’d be helpless against someone who’d cheated to get his position.
And if he could expose the supposed ranked No. 1 struggling against a Triple Digit Magicmaster on the big stage... the regular folk who didn’t know Alus were one thing, but his influence would plummet with the rulers and Governors-General who were surely suspecting something.
And Fillic’s mentor Jean would rejoice at his growth. It was even possible that with the cheater chased out of his position, Jean would climb up the ranks.
That’s why he couldn’t stand waiting in the seed slot. Yet despite his attempts at provoking her, Karia had chosen to keep him in reserve.
As such it would be a while longer until he fought Alus. “Well, no matter, as long as we can fight... I’ll expose him for what he truly is. I can’t wait to see how he’ll react when the abilities of the true ranked No. 1 Magicmaster are put on display across the world. Sir Jean will be happy once his ranking is revised...”
Fillic’s lips curled up into a twisted smile. If someone had seen the madness in his eyes, they would have frozen up on the spot.
* * *
“Why would you struggle that much, with that much of a difference in strength?”
“I couldn’t help it. Whenever I attacked, it was blocked by a wall!”
Alus and Tesfia were arguing in a corner of the venue on the second day of the tournament. Right now they were in the observation area reserved for contestants.
“It’s your fault for holding back on your trump card. And in the end, you wound up expending heaps of mana. It would have been more efficient to settle it with the first attack.”
Alus hit her where it hurt, and Tesfia fell silent with a sullen look.
She’d beaten her second round opponent without trouble, but unexpectedly struggled against the third, a female student who specialized in defense and used earth magic like Ciel. The problem was that she devoted herself to defense, making the match an endurance test. Walls of earth sprouted up one after another, blocking all of Tesfia’s attacks.
Tesfia had panicked at being faced with a strategy she’d never seen before, and ended up wasting a lot of mana firing spells at random. She’d also stepped right into the quagmire trap her opponent set up. Having been cornered, Tesfia froze her footing to forcibly harden the ground, finally relying on the brute force method of casting Icicle Sword at full force to create two swords that tore through the earth wall, thus ending the match.
She had won, but she couldn’t really rejoice as she wound up showing off her incompetence.
Incidentally, Alice, Loki, and Alus had all secured three wins. The first-year division had just ended, and the second-years were starting to get ready.
Normally, Alus and the others would be sent out to gather information, but as there were more losers on the second day, they had students to spare, so they had received permission to observe a single block together.
Right now, Felinella was walking up to the stage.
Glancing to his side, Alus could see Tesfia intensely staring at Felinella as she entered the ring. The excitement in her eyes was obvious as she snuck peeks at the screen that was counting down the start time. Felinella’s opponent was a student from Iblis’ Fourth Magical Institute.
“You could see Felinella’s matches whenever you wanted during training. What’s the difference now...? I don’t really think there’s a need to cheer her on.”
“She’s cool when she’s training with you, but she’s even more overwhelming when she’s fighting a real match,” Tesfia replied.
“I’ve only heard about it from Fia, but she’s supposed to be amazing,” Alice said. “What was the nickname she got when she won, again?”
“The Puppet’s Orchesis! Feli herself hates the name, so no one in the Institute calls her that... but everyone who’s seen her fight probably thinks it suits her perfectly,” Tesfia said.
“So you watched the tournament last year?” Alus said.
Tesfia nodded, without removing her gaze from Felinella. Alus was a little exasperated, but it wasn’t unusual for those who wanted to become Magicmasters to act starstruck at the Friendship Magical Tournament.
Loki, sitting on the other side of Alus, asked a question. “What does ‘orchesis’ mean?”
“She makes the opponent dance. Well, you’ll understand when you see it for yourself,” Tesfia answered her.
Loki wasn’t the only one who was confused. Even Alus ran through his memories, wondering if that kind of a spell even existed.
Some spotters were able to affect their opponent’s mind to a degree, and a few that used the dark attribute were skilled at manipulating the mind. As far as Alus knew, however, Felinella didn’t fit into either of those types. But asking the excited Tesfia about it didn’t sit right with him, so he remained silent.
Either way, if Tesfia was right, he would soon be able to see it for himself. With his interest stimulated a little, Alus looked at the stage.
Moments before the match, Felinella and her opponent faced each other on the stage.
A storm of cheers rang out. There seemed to be more people in the audience on the second day. People were even standing on the walkways.
Unfortunately for the male student from Iblis, most of these cheers were surely directed towards Felinella. After all, she’d won last year.
Alus let out a small murmur as he looked at the AWR in Felinella’s hand. She was wielding a thrusting type of weapon similar to a rapier. He’d seen it plenty of times during their training, but it was just as fantastic to see now as it was then. One rarely came across masterpieces like that. The blade was in the shape of a thin cone, and it was engraved with a spiraling magic formula.
Her opponent had a cutlass type AWR, and was holding it upwards. It was clear even from where Alus sat that he was taking deep breaths.
Felinella elegantly and quietly moved to her starting position, the tip of her AWR pointed towards the ground. Her movements were composed and refined.
But in reality, she was restless. Though once the match began she wouldn’t think about anything unnecessary. Felinella had been trained to maintain her composure at all times, and she excelled at controlling her nerves. No matter how much attention she got, she would be able to keep her cool. But this time she could feel the sweat in her palms. That was because she was distracted by the fact that Alus was watching.
Realizing that she was no good like this, Felinella took a deep breath and exhaled.
The buzzer signaling the start rang out.
Felinella made the first move, spinning the tip of her AWR around as if she was playing with it.
Her opponent didn’t understand what was going on right away, but when he felt a draft brush against his hair, he could wager a guess.
Alus could see the faint traces of mana fluttering. At first glance it looks to be just a spell to create wind, but... However, it picked up its momentum, and before long it was like a storm.
The opponent should have been hit by the raging winds. And he shouldn’t even be able to breathe properly in the midst of all of that. In the arena sealed by a barrier, even a novice-level spell could have a bigger effect than expected.
However, Felinella’s opponent wasn’t faltering. Knowing that she was last year’s winner, they must have at least taken some countermeasures.
The opponent muttered something, and the formula on his cutlass began glowing, water starting to flow out from its tip. It stained the ground, surrounding his footing with water that began whirling with him at its center.
Like with Felinella’s spell, the torrent of water picked up momentum. In an instant it reached up to his knees, turning into a tornado of water, and he used the raging streams to create a wall.
“Flow Wall, huh,” Alus said. It was an intermediate defensive spell. Its effect wasn’t extremely powerful, but freely manipulating that much water was far from easy. The fact that he was managing it meant that he was quite a promising novice Magicmaster in his own right.
“But will he be able to fight with that?” Loki asked the obvious question.
Flow Wall’s greatest weakness was that the higher and thicker the wall of water, the more the caster’s vision was impaired.
“I imagine he’d have taken that into account.” Alus could tell it was meant as a countermeasure against Felinella. As long as the wall isolated him from her, there was no need to worry about her magic.
However, it wasn’t a fundamental solution. Different spells could interfere with reality to different degrees.
Both parties prepared for battle with the spells they specialized in, as their strategies were put in place.
Suddenly, the wind beating against the wall of water stopped. And Felinella began spinning the tip of her AWR in the opposite direction.
She had clearly been limiting herself before, as the raging winds returned with even more ferocity and gradually tore through the wall of water. Despite all the wind, Felinella’s hair moved as if it was only being brushed by a gentle breeze.
Next, another change happened. Four small whirlwinds appeared around Felinella, a faint green light trailing after them. Rondo Raged condensed mana to the point that sticking a bare hand in its raging winds would tear it to shreds in an instant.
Seeing her opportunity, Felinella handled her AWR like it was a conductor’s baton. She manipulated the four whirlwinds, sending them after her opponent, when suddenly the drops of water that had landed at her feet gathered even more water out of nowhere, creating a massive spearhead.
The spearhead shot towards Felinella without pause. The pressure from its speed and fierceness made even the audience jump in surprise.
Tesfia screamed and covered her eyes.
Yet that expected clean strike hit nothing but empty space. Without anything to hit, the spearhead of water dispersed, but Felinella was nowhere to be seen.
“That was Wind Ride.”
Alus lightly nodded at Loki’s remark. Wind Ride was a maneuver where you rode on wind that you created. It wasn’t so much a spell as it was a technique those with an affinity to wind magic used. It was a form of magic flight.
The audience held their breath as they stared at Felinella riding through the air as if on invisible footing.
Normally, Wind Ride wasn’t that flexible. But it appeared her excellent skills made it possible.
Despite the opponent’s careful preparation, he was still at Felinella’s mercy. After all, with vertical movement available to her, she held the advantage against attempts at surrounding her with water.
That also applied to attacking. The whirlwinds assaulted the opponent from all directions as if to crush him.
The male student from Iblis focused on maintaining his wall of water to protect himself, but he was clearly at a disadvantage. He tried to switch tactics to attacking before his defenses crumbled, but even that was in vain. The water he shot out to attack with cut nothing but air, just barely scratching her. The wall of water limited his vision too much to be able to hit Felinella who was still freely dancing through the air.
And with his attention on attacking, the wall around him was growing weaker, until it was finally overcome by the raging winds, and scattered in all directions.
Alus could clearly see the astonished look on the male student’s face. His ability to attack and defend at the same time placed him among the most capable second-year students Alus had seen. But he had no choice but to acknowledge that Felinella was a cut above.
Even if it had been weakened, it would take more time to destroy that level of defense for most people. This was why Felinella had changed the direction of the air current. Alus could see how she had used the whirlwind to accelerate the rotation of the wall of water. The speed of rotation directly corresponded to the wall’s defensive strength. When Flow Wall came into contact with the wind rotating in the same direction, it was forcibly accelerated.
By speeding up the rotation without her opponent realizing it, she increased the mana strain necessary to maintain the wall.
The opponent’s mana and attention were focused on maintaining the spell. But in order to do that, they needed to pour more mana into it and continuously rewrite its structure. And that required mana control more advanced than was required for an intermediate spell.
For an institute student, that was a difficult task. Because of that, the wall fell apart faster than expected, and the water was launched up into the air like a fountain.
The wall of water on the stage was sent flying, and at the same time the whirlwind rotating at a constant speed returned to a randomly rampaging storm.
Within the wind pressure that made it difficult even to keep one’s eyes open, the male student held his cutlass near his face and desperately searched for Felinella. “—!!” He felt a dull impact hit his shoulder, followed by numbness, a sign that he’d taken an attack that was being substituted with mental fatigue. This sensation of numbness confused the brain as the pain was replaced through magic. It was like a form of hallucination.
He looked over his shoulder and swung his cutlass, but there was nobody there, and it passed through empty space.
The counterattack he took against his shoulder added to the sensation of numbness. The constant wind pressure limited his vision. He was unable to locate Felinella.
And Felinella’s attacks continued. His leg, his arm, his waist. All kinds of places were struck by thrusting attacks.
The male student instinctively held his hand up to cover his eyes and attempted to attack with water, but the attacks were fired off in the wrong direction and dispersed into mana. Not only was he struggling with his aim due to not being able to see, but his spell was incomplete because of its need for visual information in its construction.
Fear overtook him as he swung his cutlass at random and fired off spells without any concern for his mana. Water that stood no chance of reaching Felinella was fired off, and ultimately returned to mana. He was also running out of stamina because of his constant swinging with the cutlass.
Felinella continued her attack, accurately aiming for weak spots and piling on the damage.
As he fell into a panic, the male student forgot about tactics and mana control and simply swung his limbs and fired off weak magic.
Lord Vizaist sure is thorough, Alus thought, as he looked at the sound tactics that Felinella’s father had likely beat into her.
She robbed her opponent of his vision and used wind to whisper diversions into his ear. Whenever she saw an opportunity, she kept up the pressure with a wall of wind.
With the fear of not knowing where the next attack would come from, the opponent’s mental state plummeted.
However, this wasn’t because Felinella was playing with him. She was simply doing what she needed to do in order to ensure victory.
Felinella had started off by measuring her opponent’s abilities with attacks that grazed him. Once fear began to influence him, and his attacks left him open, she used the openings to step in and pierce through him.
And as she was doing this at high speeds while riding the wind, this was quite clearly the result of all her training.
“This is it... the Puppet’s Orchesis,” Tesfia muttered.
Alus nodded wordlessly as he understood.
The opponent swung his AWR at random at someone he couldn’t see, and flapped around with his limbs after each sharp attack he took. As a result, on the stage it looked like a single puppet dancing like mad.
I can understand not liking the nickname, Alus thought to himself, as he watched this gruesome scene. Once the puppet’s strings were attached, there was no escape as you were forced to dance until your death. The sight wasn’t so much spectacular as it was chilling, but those were the kinds of techniques needed for secret missions.
Recalling Felinella smiling elegantly, Alus furrowed his brows and cleared his throat in a way nobody else would hear. He felt an almost bitter taste in his mouth.
“Is something the matter?” Loki asked, but Alus only shook his head. He glanced back at the arena to change gears.
Felinella’s opponent was already covered in wounds, sticking his AWR into the ground just to barely support himself. Anyone watching could tell that he was mentally exhausted. The outcome was already decided, but the fact that he remained standing was a symbol of his pride as a contestant representing Iblis’ Fourth Magical Institute.
Suddenly, the color of the raging wind changed. The storm calmed and Felinella appeared in the middle of the air. She landed on the ground without making a sound. The formula of the AWR she lightly held in her hand was still faintly glowing.
She then approached her opponent. The serious expression she wore made it clear that she wasn’t being arrogant in her advantage.
Her opponent saw her approach, but there was no longer any fear or panic in his expression. He already knew that there was nothing he could do.
When they were within close combat range, Felinella enchanted her AWR and swung it through the air, which calmed the winds.
The male student must have understood what she was doing, as he pulled his AWR out and held it against his hip. He gave Felinella a silent nod and gathered what strength he had left.
He swung his cutlass horizontally, but there was no force in his blow, nor was it enchanted. That said, for him it was the greatest blow he could muster right now.
Felinella stepped forward, taking his attack on directly.
The two crossed paths for an instant.
Once she was beyond him, Felinella heard her opponent collapse behind her, and slowly closed her eyes.
At the same time, the buzzer signaling the end of the match rang out. The victor was declared on the screen, and loud applause sounded throughout the stadium.
That generous commendation wasn’t just for the winner, either. The match itself had been one-sided, but the contestant from Iblis’ Fourth Magical Institute was worthy of applause for his skillful manipulation of water and his guts to fight to the end.
Once the match ended, Felinella remained on stage until the healer Magicmaster took care of the unconscious student, as a sign of respect. That graceful and well-mannered attitude got the audience even more excited.
While it wasn’t the main tournament, Felinella must have earned hundreds if not thousands of new fans from all the nations with just this match.
More explosive cheering came from the audience. Felinella bowed in all directions, and once she finished her final bow, her eyes were fixed in a certain direction... the seats where Alus was.
She smiled as if to ask if he understood now, and Alus raised his hand in response.
He picked up something else from her eyes. That was why she chose to fight in that way despite her dislike for her nickname. He had thought it was to ensure victory, but it appeared that wasn’t all. What she put on display wasn’t showing a feminine elegance, but rather certain ability and resolve in the face of battle. And giving off an overwhelming presence while she was at it.
This is related to work... is she trying to show me that she has the skills needed to get involved? Is she trying to tell me that she wants to accompany me on my jobs from now on?
In that case, Felinella could certainly be called a ‘useful woman.’ That said, Alus might be overthinking it, so he pushed those thoughts to the side for now. Either way, it wasn’t a decision for him to make, but rather one for Vizaist and Berwick.
And honestly—he was fine with just Loki being the only person to have that kind of wordless exchange with.
“Feli really is amazing!” Tesfia’s admiration made her look like a Felinella believer.
“I could just barely see her fighting from here, and it was overwhelming. But she used a different style from when she trained against Al. She must have been keeping that up her sleeve.” Alice was also surprised, but she seemed to have her own doubts.
“That’s her strategy. It leaves a strong impression, but the opponent needs to fall into a pattern and it takes some time until the match is over. But not having to show herself is very suitable for covert operations,” Alus said.
“I see. But he really did dance... I feel a little bad for him,” Alice smiled wryly as she sympathized with Felinella’s opponent.
“It’s a battle with the nation’s dignity at stake, so it can’t be helped. Considering her position as our leader, a show of force would raise the team’s morale.”
Alice smiled faintly at Loki’s accurate description. “... I guess.”
As someone who won his first match in five seconds, Alus should have been agreeing with Loki. But he remembered that even the Governor-General had voiced pity for his opponent, and pondered this for a moment.
The tournament was a big moment for novice Magicmasters. But Alus hadn’t even given his first opponent the chance to put up a fight. In that sense, he could accurately be described as an object of pity.
Alus had then let his second and third opponents at least fire off a spell first. He decided that he would let his next opponent fire off an additional spell on top of that.
“Still, Feli has gotten much stronger than last year,” Tesfia observed.
“I bet she wouldn’t be happy to hear that from you,” Alus said.
“Well, she’s a Triple Digit, so I’m not in a position to say anything too self-important, but you didn’t see her fights last year, so what do you know? Last year’s final was really amazing!”
“Is that so...” He wasn’t going to argue with Tesfia. If she was saying that Felinella was different from last year, then she was. Her techniques probably took after Vizaist, and when it came to battles against other people, she would probably equal Loki.
However, the reason Alus didn’t really feel like Felinella had changed wasn’t just because he didn’t know what she was like before, but also because he had three people around him who had grown considerably. Their growth being put on display on the stage was astounding. They still made mistakes due to their personalities, but they would look completely different to those who knew how they were before.
“Right, Feli’s match is over, so I guess it’s time to go back,” Alus said.
Everyone had finished their third matches, and there was still plenty of time until they would fight again, so it was only natural that they would help gather information. In reality, this was the kind of work that was left up to the losers, but it would be arrogant to refuse to do it on that basis.
Besides, they’d taken a break from their scouting to cheer Felinella on. The best bet to keep the group harmony was to observe the other matches and gather information properly.
Also, when Felinella was making plans she valued Alus’ opinion highly, and he would feel awkward if she asked him something that he couldn’t answer. So he got up from his chair with a sigh, scratching the back of his head and stretching.
“What are you guys going to do?” he asked the others.
Tesfia said, “We’re going to go back to headquarters and welcome Feli back.”
“Are you not going to do that, Al?” Alice asked him.
“I’ll congratulate her when I report to her later. Besides, it would be bad to swarm her just as she got back, and someone has to watch the remaining matches anyway.”
Another match would begin shortly. And how would he look Felinella in the eye if he got so carried away celebrating with her that he forgot to gather information?
Looking at how excited Tesfia was, it was clear that this was going to take a while. The same went for the gentle Alice. They’d also won their second and third matches, so they’d done their best in their own way. So he at least wanted to let them do this.
Of course, Loki would accompany him as he watched the matches. For the time being, he wanted to move to somewhere where he could observe the whole stadium. After thinking about it, Alus decided to move to the regular spectator seats and sit with the rest of the audience. With an overhead view, he would be able to watch all of the stages without any problem.
But to be honest, as he began to observe the matches, he didn’t think there was much difference between the first-year matches and the third-year matches. If he paid extra attention to the details, he could glean that there was a slight difference in strength, but they still seemed the same.
Theoretically, this level of difference could be made up with a few days in the Outer World. Luck alone could decide the outcome.
There were some Triple Digits among the students, but they didn’t really stimulate Alus’ interest. With cold eyes, he observed the stadium and spotted students from the other institutes diligently gathering information.
Alus had the same goal, but he wasn’t stupid enough to write it down—taking notes like they were doing—and relied entirely on his memory instead.
“Sir Alus, should you not push this role onto someone else?” Loki quietly asked.
“I can’t do that. I’m participating as one of the contestants; there’s no need to stir up trouble for no reason. Besides, Feli is in the second-year division so it won’t hurt to gather info.”
“Are you going this far because of those brea— I mean, because she is from the Socalent family?”
Alus felt like he’d almost heard an inappropriate word for this conversation, but decided to ignore it. “Hm... well, her being Lord Vizaist’s daughter is part of it. Besides, she might end up taking part in secret missions in the future.”
“T-That’s true. I am sorry for overstepping my boundaries.” Loki blushed and apologized with a downturned look.
“Don’t worry about it,” Alus said. He thought about it for a moment. Seeing as how she was usually so reserved when it came to everything, that question was so unlike her that it might be a sign of her internal change.
He suddenly thought back to everything that had happened since he’d started instructing Tesfia and Alice. To him it had all been illogical and unreasonable, filled with choices that would have been unthinkable when he was in the military. He had been mentally exhausted by it all, but he still couldn’t tell if it had been a complete waste of time or if there had been a point to it.
But these kinds of thoughts, interwoven with daily life, made him aware of things he’d never noticed before. That’s why he didn’t think the unfocused dialogue he had with Loki and the other noisy girls was completely pointless.
Though the time might come when Alus, who couldn’t accept being unwittingly used by others, would have to force his will through so that he wouldn’t become complacent with his current situation.
That’s what he was thinking now, particularly about his feelings for Felinella that had begun to change ever so slightly. He wanted to ensure that it wasn’t some kind of excuse, that it wasn’t a form of corruption in a sense.
However—
The reason has to be that discussion we had after that mission.
In short, it was the engagement talk that Vizaist had brought up. Alus, of course, had no such intentions. Felinella’s attractiveness was completely unrelated to that. He simply wanted to avoid forming an odd bond with the Socalent family.
But it wasn’t like he hated Vizaist, and forming a closer relationship with him when he was singlehandedly in charge of the nation’s information gathering would be plenty beneficial for Alus who wanted to maintain his freedom. From that point of view, it was easy to find a reason for Alus and Felinella to get engaged.
But—
Is that really all...?
Alus groaned, deep in thought, when Loki called out to him with a concerned look. She was worried that she might have ruined his mood.
“No, it’s nothing,” Alus said, turning to her. “Loki, actually...” He suddenly closed his mouth. He was about to mention the engagement talk but then decided against it. Because when he thought about it, nothing would come from discussing it with her. After all, he’d already decided that it was out of the question. He also felt like it would be a pain if he did.
Loki gave him a questioning look as she tilted her head, but he had said it was nothing, so she kept quiet.
He felt like he was going around in circles. There was no way he would find an answer when he couldn’t understand people’s feelings. But he did feel like running his mind in circles about something was a sign of his own change.
Alus let out a soft sigh and rubbed the back of his neck as if to wipe away his concerns, before plunking his hand down on Loki’s head. “Well, it is true that she’s useful.” Even he found his expression was lacking as he put on a wry smile. He’d tried to genuinely smile, but it ended up looking forced.
That was when... a voice suddenly called out. “It’s a little late.” Despite the crowded surroundings, the refreshing voice came through clearly.
Loki turned a surprised look in that direction, while Alus wordlessly faced the two people that were approaching them.
The first was a familiar blond young man. But Alus’ eyes weren’t on that man, Jean, but rather on the unfamiliar face next to him. He had no memories of having promised to meet up at a specific time, but when he saw the boy with reddish-brown hair, he realized that Jean had meant something else. In other words, this introduction was late.
Now that I think about it, he mentioned something about introducing me to Rusalca’s hope.
Looking closer, Alus could recall seeing this boy heading for the arena as a contestant in the third round. However, it had taken place at the same time as his own match, so he hadn’t been able to watch it for himself.
“You’ve sure kept me waiting,” Alus said sarcastically.
Jean, of course, picked up on the fact that Alus’ words had more meaning than finally meeting with this hope of his. It was because Jean had leaked information on Alus to Rusalca that they’d kept him from fighting their promising student.
While luck would have also played a part in it, if not for Jean’s interference Alus might have been able to crush Rusalca’s hope early on, which would have affected the Second Magical Institute’s prospects of winning.
“Oh, don’t say that. You’re face-to-face now, aren’t you?” Jean replied with a wry smile. This was the light tone in which Jean and Alus typically greeted each other.
At the same time, the boy who had been a step behind him walked up to stand side by side with Jean. “It is nice to meet you, Sir Alus. My name is Fillic Argan. It is a pleasure to meet you. I have heard much about you from Sir Jean.” Fillic held a hand against his chest and bowed elegantly.
His gentlemanly manners left a good impression, at least on the surface. But in reality Fillic Argan was one of Rusalca’s students who was currently giving Felinella a headache. That was because she still hadn’t obtained much information about him. Or rather, as far as scouts for the Second Magical Institute could tell, he still hadn’t shown off his true abilities yet. In other words, his matches so far hadn’t revealed anything useful.
In the end, he’d settled his matches using a novice level wind spell. With that level of spell, it was impossible to ascertain his affinity.
Alus looked the boy over once more. His hair hung at about eye level, with some tufts of hair sticking out. In a way the hairstyle was similar to Jean’s. His narrow brown eyes gave off an earnest and serious expression.
However, a Magicmaster’s looks had nothing to do with their strength. Observing the other party before exchanging words was an old trick when it came to measuring their strength. “Yeah, I’ve heard about you from Jean. He calls you Rusalca’s hope. I look forward to fighting you.”
Jean wore a forced smile as Alus spoke in a manner that was so unlike him, and Fillic put on a smile of his own when he saw that.
Alus continued, “And this is my partner, Loki. As you might know, she’s also a contestant in this tournament.”
Loki wordlessly bowed, pulling off elegant manners even better than Fillic, as if she was a professional maid.
“Nice to meet you.” Fillic smiled. Though what he was actually thinking was a mystery.
“Yes. If we do end up facing each other in a match, I would like to fight all out... so that I won’t sully Sir Alus’ name.”
“...!”
Loki spoke matter-of-factly, but when she brought up Alus’ name, Fillic’s eyes glowed with hostility, something Alus didn’t overlook.
“Fillic, I’ve heard that your abilities are on the level of a Triple Digit, but have you gone out on missions in the Outer World?”
“Yes, but only accompanying Sir Jean on missions. I am still not in the military.”
“Hmm, with Jean, huh... are you training him too?” Alus asked, turning to look at Jean. He wasn’t about to say that it was unfair that a Single Digit Magicmaster was teaching students.
“Sometimes... but you’re doing the same, aren’t you?”
That was true. In fact, he was training two, as well as Felinella and his partner. “Still, that you’re training students... to think you had the talent to train the next generation,” Alus said, his tone turning a little offensive at the end.
Jean looked more suspicious than angry. Alus already knew that he was working as an instructor for various units. He’d told him about it during their joint operation a few years ago as well, so Alus shouldn’t have forgotten it.
But when he heard a grinding sound next to him, he caught on to what Alus was doing.
“Wh-What the hell do you know! Sir Jean is far greater than you’ll ever... ack!” Fillic fell for Alus’ provocation and shouted out with his true personality on display, but he was suddenly stopped by Jean unleashing a powerful chop on the back of his neck.
“This is why you’re still...” Jean sighed, exasperated, while Fillic wordlessly looked at him in protest. “This guy’s a little short-tempered, but try to forgive him, Alus.”
“Yeah, I don’t mind. I guess I played around a little too much, too.” Alus gave him a token apology with a smile. He’d at least received a tidbit to bring over to Felinella.
His abilities aside, Alus had gotten a glimpse of his personality. Fillic had become enraged and shouted out, but something like that wouldn’t have moved the calm and collected Alus. He’d also made sure to signal Loki to remain calm as well.
But Fillic flying into a frenzy like that was something to remember. He must have known about Alus’ and Jean’s relationship, and that they were just making idle talk. So his reaction was exaggerated.
In other words—Fillic became very emotional when it came to Jean. His strength was still unknown, but if he could be worked up into a lather that easily, it was a clear weakness.
“Well, the matches aren’t over yet, so I think we’ll leave the introductions at this. Sorry for taking up your time,” Jean said.
“Yeah, don’t worry about it. You have a very passionate pupil there. He sure is vigorous.” Alus threw a cynical stare Fillic’s way, which caused his eyebrows to shoot up in an ill-natured manner.
“Well, it’s true that I wanted to introduce you two. And to be frank, I got orders from above too.”
Alus nodded understandingly. In other words, Jean had another purpose for appearing in the stands with Fillic aside from introducing the two of them. It was also to advertise that Fillic was pretty much Jean’s disciple. It was meant to prevent the other nations from trying to recruit Fillic. So Rusalca’s ruler, Lithia, must have given that order.
Loki was sort of in the same situation. Unlike Alus, who all the nations would want to approach regardless of the hit to their reputations, they wouldn’t be able to do the same to Loki.
“So yeah, we’ll be leaving now. See you later.” Jean raised his hand to say farewell.
When suddenly Fillic stepped forward. “Sir Alus... please turn your ears to this vigorous, passionate fledgling’s overstepping remark. If we have the chance of facing each other in a match, and I, in the unlikely chance, were to win, would you please step down from your rank as No. 1 and endorse Sir Jean?!”
“... Hey! Fillic!” Jean furrowed his brows and tried to silence him.
But Alus listened with an unfazed expression. “... I don’t mind, but that means to go all out, right?”
Fillic nodded, having already abandoned his honor student’s mask, as he gave Alus a piercing stare.
However, Jean stepped in between them and said in a firm tone, “Hold up, I can’t allow that. And Alus, don’t casually accept things like this either. Especially not here at the Friendship Magical Tournament. So let me say this as Rusalca’s Single Digit Magicmaster. Humanity should be facing off against Fiends, and not each other. So forget what this idiot just said!” Jean finished, as he lowered his head to Alus.
“Sir Jean...!” Fillic said in a sorrowful tone.
“You be quiet!” Jean scolded Fillic.
Alus called out to try and soothe Jean. “Come on, it was just a joke. Even if I give up my rank, they’ll just push up No. 2. They’re as hardheaded about that kind of thing as always,” he said, as if he was trying to smooth things over, but the bitter look he put on his face could be interpreted as him looking down on Fillic.
“Right. Sorry about that, Alus... we’ll be leaving now before this idiot blurts out anything else.”
Alus raised his hand to send them off.
Fillic gave Alus one last overbearing look before politely bowing. He then turned around to walk away, but the hostility in his eyes was still present. At the same time, he had a regretful look over having made Jean lower his head for his sake.
Seeing the two off, Alus’ lips lifted up as he turned back to look at the stage.
“Did something funny happen?” Loki asked.
“You could say that. I was just thinking that Jean is training someone interesting.”
“That is what you call interesting? If he continues with that kind of attitude, I won’t be able to bear it even if you forgive him, Sir Alus!” Having nothing to take her chagrin out on, Loki glared at the two from Rusalca.
Seeing how Loki was raring for a fight, Alus put his hand on her head and whispered so no one around could hear.
“—!!”
Loki caught her breath, and Alus smiled a little. “There’s plenty of people that come to challenge me despite knowing I’m the ranked No. 1. And I’ve taken an interest in him after learning that Jean has trained him himself.”
After that, Alus and Loki returned to headquarters. We might actually end up fighting. Alus had jokingly agreed to give up his rank if he were to lose, but he was halfway serious about it. Saying he’d go all out against Fillic had, of course, also been a joke.
Incidentally, Alus’ original plan had been to lose against Loki in the finals, or act like he’d gotten lucky and win. If he were to beat a Triple Digit without any difficulties in front of the other Second Magical Institute contestants as well as the spectators that didn’t know the truth, he wouldn’t be able to maintain his peaceful lifestyle. It would be a pain in the ass if rumors were to start spreading at the Institute.
In the end, battles between contestants of the same institute were throwaway battles. Since they’d get the same points anyway, Alus would have loved to skip them, but without a justifiable reason to withdraw he would end up sullying the name and traditions of the Friendship Magical Tournament.
If I get the chance, I should get Jean to teach me what giving guidance is like. Geez, it’s all a massive pain...! Alus complained in his mind, but in reality, he ended up smiling wryly as he realized that he didn’t really hate it.
Perhaps that was because Tesfia’s and Alice’s growth was proof that his guidance had been right. Like with magic research, seeing the results with his own eyes wasn’t a bad feeling.
When Alus came back to headquarters, the celebrations around Felinella had finally ended.
She was seated at the desk, with the atmosphere around her having shifted from victor to that of a leader. She was staring at the screen with a serious expression and wrinkled brows, which indicated that she wasn’t exactly optimistic.
“It appears that the results are unfavorable,” Alus said in a polite tone behind her, taking his surroundings into account.
Felinella was surprised for a moment, before realizing it was him and giving him a big smile. “—!! Mr. Alus... Yes, the situation remains unpredictable, but with everyone’s hard work we still have a possibility of making a comeback.” There was quite a bit of fatigue in her tone, but Alus’ presence seemed to help refresh her weary mind.
“I just met with Rusalca’s Fillic.”
“...! So, how was he?”
“It’s about as expected. He must be Rusalca’s so-called hope. He seems pretty mischievous, but it shouldn’t be a problem if I deal with him.”
“Right. I was hoping to put you against him from a strategic point of view too, so there won’t be any change in the policy. Which means the problem is...” Felinella turned back to the screen behind her to look at the tournament bracket on display.
“Who will be sent to the main tournament.”
“Yes. Considering your abilities, you and Ms. Loki will be put in for sure.”
The four slots weren’t all controlled by the Second Magical Institute. After the two matches tomorrow, one of the spots would fall to the First Magical Institute no matter what. That wouldn’t change even if Alus did take down one of the First Magical Institute’s contestants tomorrow.
That’s why all they could do right now was to secure three of the slots and defeat Rusalca in the first round of the main tournament.
“Which means that we’ll have to pick between Ms. Tesfia and Ms. Alice for the last spot...” That was where Felinella hesitated. As the leader, she could prevent two students from the Institute from fighting each other in the preliminaries. The other students were one thing, but these two had received guidance from Alus, and she wasn’t sure who she should prioritize.
“Either one’s fine, aren’t they?” Alus said, but without conviction. “Tesfia has plenty of mana, and Alice has spells that are effective against people. They’re still rough around the edges, so each has her pros and cons. Whoever you choose, you’ll still end up regretting it if they lose.”
Alus had spoken sharply to Tesfia’s mother Frose before, and the gist of it was that Tesfia had the potential to become a Double Digit. The best way to show that was to stack up victories.
Tesfia had the slight edge in rank, but Alice had Reflection, which was useful against people, and her mana efficiency had improved with her new AWR, so they were more or less evenly matched.
Felinella smiled wryly at Alus’ rough words.
“But, well, I will leave that up to you, Ms. Felinella. I do think, however, that you should avoid having those two clash until the main tournament.”
That was a worry that Alus had in his mind, but Felinella simply nodded. “I understand. I will try to make adjustments. There’s a chance the other contestants will clash, but that will be a good learning experience for them.”
The truth was that seven first-years remained after fighting their third match. This was an amazing result, but it also meant that some of them would wind up having to fight each other, which was regrettable.
But even though it was regrettable, Felinella didn’t feel any pessimism. After all, this was unavoidable in a tournament. In fact, the first-years were prepared to fight anyone they faced to their full potential.
Joy filled Felinella’s face, as she rejoiced at their sincerity and growth, as well as happiness from Alus showing his trust in her.
No Comments Yet
Post a new comment
Register or Login