Here’s a new chapter. Thanks for reading!
In the blink of an eye lunch break passed, and afternoon classes had already begun. He was so concentrated that he didn’t hear the bell go off.
Ars without any rush reluctantly stopped his reading and headed towards the classroom with his book in one hand.
Since he slowly took his time walking, by the time he arrived class had already started. Even if it was more for his own sake, he planned to make sure he didn’t bother anyone when entering.
Maybe it was because the news of his quarrel with Tesfia had spread that there were many harsh gazes directed towards him, but he paid them no attention as always.
Of course that was the case. People had high expectations of first year students with a surprising four digit rank.
Tesfia was noble and beautiful, with determined eyes filled with great dignity. Her height wasn’t that tall but that could be said to be one of her charming points.
With the two of them side by side, it would no doubt be a dazzling scene.
For Ars who had confronted these two people, the entire first grade was already his enemy. On top of that his posture and attitude during class didn’t really help him.
Ars who was trying to cause no trouble was unresponsive to all this chatter. He had no tolerance with other people who deemed other people to be the cause of their problems. It would only be pointless labor.
Ars didn’t concern himself with all the whispering going on behind his back. However, if this begun to start disturbing his own time, he would have to do something about it.
If this was something done under Tesfia’s orders, then he planned to pay her back fully after class, but Tesfia who was sitting across the room from him was without any concern of what had just happened, deeply concentrated in the lesson. It also didn’t seem like she was pretending not to see it. Her gaze was fixated towards the display at the front of the room as she frantically copied down what was on it.
Alice did notice it, but could do nothing.
If she retorted here, it would only make matters worse. As expected of Ars, without even breaking his concentration he managed to evade the paper ball. Or you could rather say that was a fault of his. He was constantly keen on sensing everything around him as if he was a mage in battle.
Every time he went to the outside world on a mission, it was never a one day trip. To be able to sleep while being able to bear the dread of a potential attack from demons, he drilled it into himself to not let any sound escape his notice.
That’s why they could be considered thieves who were stealing away Ars’s time.
Ars picked up the paper ball, and ripped it into many shreds. He then ran his magic through the many specks in the palm of his hand.
Ars just by trivially thinking about it caused his magic to cover the paper. These could be used as even a weapon. The sensation of covering objects with magic could be said to be treating your target as a part of your own body. Mages could perceive all the magic that their bodies were constantly producing. That’s why through training, one could consciously circulate their magic though one part of the body to another. However, it was hard to consciously direct magic outside your body.
It could only be achieved by a phenomenon, that is the reconstructed magic ceremony method. The magic that was transferred within the object was definitely magic, but it wasn’t the case that it was magic itself*.
He gripped the shreds lightly covered in magic in his hand, and without anyone noticing flicked his thumb.
It bounced off the classroom walls and hit five students on the head. In that moment they all reverberated from the impact a little and toppled on top of the desk all at the same time.
It was similar to a pea shooter. He only applied a little magic to the scraps of paper to make them a little harder, and accurately hit the students on the joint of their necks which caused them to faint. The power of the shot was similar to a chop to the neck. As there were no external wounds and the weapon used were just scraps of paper, nobody noticed anything.
Alice who was surprised at what had happened shifted her gaze away from him and hadn’t seemed to noticed that it was the work of Ars.
After that Ars managed to enjoy his two last classes before school ended. The students who were lying on their desks had no signs of waking up, but they were still alive of course.
They wondered why they suddenly fell asleep as they rubbed their eyes, and realized that they had missed most of the lesson and wanted to improve from now on.
However they had no intention of improving on their meddling with Ars.
Then, the students who should’ve been going home or doing their own training gathered around Tesfia and Alice as if it was their daily routine. Ars noticed that it was all related to magic from the conversation that he overheard.
Certainly, there were also people who were also just attracted to them in the crowd.
It was clear that there was a hierarchical relationship between them as their ranking was higher than all of the crowd who were also aiming to be mages. It might be an exaggeration to say that all of them were trying suck up to Tesfia and Alice*, but all of them aimed on raising their own rank. People who desired on becoming mages were closely tied to their rank, so it can’t be helped that they all want to raise their rank.
The two of them didn’t forget about their plans after this today.
「I’m sorry. We have some things to take care of after this」
Tesfia gently notified everyone, and Alice said the same thing.
「The teachers called for both of us, so I’ll see you tomorrow.」
Tesfia gazed towards Ars. Her pupils were full of force, as if implying to Ars to not run away from their confrontation.
As they used the reason of being called by a teacher, nobody stopped them from leaving.
「Can we wait until you’re finished?」
The voice belonged to a female student who was carrying a book concerning the fundamentals of magic. Her short stature gave her an adorable look and gave her the image of a small animal, but that would only work against the male students.
Couldn’t she just go directly ask the teacher? was what Ars thought, as he saw members of the mage’s society in the crowd. They probably wanted to get acquainted to future promising mages. Of course there were also people who just wanted to be friends with those two.
「I’m truly sorry. I don’t know how long this is going to take. However I do plan to finish this as fast as possible.」
There was a snide remark included in her comment, but only Ars and Alice noticed.
「I’ll make time for you after school tomorrow.」
Tesfia compromised by making time for her tomorrow, gently reassuring the student.
From just that one line, the face of the student lit up with smiles while saying 「Thank you!」with a bag in her hands.
「Alice, let’s go」
Beside her, Alice was looking restless and with a sigh nodded.
Normally it wasn’t possible for a single student to reserve the entire practice arena.
Even if you call it concealing, Ars knew fully too well that she was there. In short, she was hiding herself in consideration for Tesfia and Alice.
And one more matter.
Ars also felt the gaze present during his practice match. In other words they were a puppet of the chairman.
「Are you seriously thinking about doing this?」
Perhaps it may be indisputable that the Faver family holds great power and influence. Tesfia’s herself held a rank that supported the notion.
Magic power and magic skill does not depend on lineage. The children of gifted mages themselves might not be gifted. And vice versa. Maybe a certain extent of talent was inheritable, but most outstanding mages owe it to their parents who raised them in an environment suitable for someone with such talent. Depending on one’s foundations, their total amount of magic power would be different. The more talent one had the more elite one could become, but even without talent or sense one could become the same with the correct knowledge.
「I’ve kept you waiting.」
Tesfia had finished changing into her practice clothes and approached while holding a katana in one hand.
Ars has also finished changing. However there wasn’t really a need to change their clothes. It was just something decided in the heat of the moment during their quarrel.
As if to ascertain that there were no spectators, Tesfia and Alice glanced around at their surrounds and looked slightly dubious.
All of the main actors have arrived, so the chairman should’ve already locked the entrances by now.
「It’s a little unusual having no one around.」
She let that comment spill out maybe because the arena was always being used.
「Anyways, let’s get started.」
Since the arena wasn’t split into different sections this time, they could use the entire area, and Tesfia was already imagining the scene of Ars groveling at her feet with a smirk on her face.
However her smile gradually changed to a more sullen face as she raised her eyebrows and veins of anger started forming on her face. Tesfia’s gaze fell towards Ars.
Specifically the pamphlet held in Ars’s hand.
「What are you trying to do?」
「You intend to make fun of me to the very end, don’t you?」
Alice was standing in between both of them, and moved out of their way slightly.
「There are some terms before we start. If I win, don’t interfere with me anymore.」
「No thank you. And, if you win?」
「Alright.」
He had already apologized once, but it seemed to be more a matter of sincerity.
By the means of Alice’s magic, a loud ring of a buzzer that signaled the start of their match echoed throughout the arena.
― At the same time Tesfia unsheathed her katana and ran towards him in a straight line. Comparing her to his classmate that he had faced earlier today in practical battle lesson, there was clearly a difference in just physical ability.
Ars held the rolled up pamphlet in his right hand and covered it with magic.
There was criteria for measuring the strength of a mage. One of those would be their AWR. As an assistance weapon, AWR’s were very strong but without exception all of them were made from rare materials. Something with high magic conductivity. By mixing this material with the core of a weapon, you would be able to raise it’s magic conductivity. Also by writing magic formulas over it, it would be able to assist you when using difficult magic.
The form and shape of the magic that covered the object was another criteria to measure one’s skill by.
That’s why in this case, it was the perfect way to measure the ability of Tesfia who’s rank was in the 4 digits.
They were already in the middle of a the match.
The magic that covered the blade when compared to other students would be considered on a higher level. Even the amount of magic was large for someone with a 4 digit rank. However it was obvious that the blade was clad in too much magic as it’s shape was distorted.
The bare minimum amount of magic needed of a 2 digit rank mage was not a lot, but what mattered was the intensity and strength of it. On the contrary the weaker the sharpness is, the more inexperienced the user would be. And in order to not waste any magic, one would finely mold their magic around their blade.
The ruined blade would be of no use in the outside world, even if it was an AWR.
「Haaaaaa!!」
Ars without even trying to dodge received the blade which swung down upon him.
As a smug expression appeared on her face――
Tesfia was surprised when her blade was stopped as she swung downwards. Alice who was standing a good distance away had the same reaction.
Her sharp sword was stopped by just a simple pamphlet. And in addition to that, there wasn’t a single scratch on it.
Ars waited until Tesfia came back to her senses.
He had no choice but to deliver divine retribution upon Tesfia who had carelessly treated his all-important precious documents. For that reason, a school pamphlet suited the job perfectly.
As Tesfia regained her senses from the shock, she quickly jumped backwards and opened up a distance.
「That’s impossible!! That can’t be ordinary paper!」
「――!!」
Ars spread open the pamphlet and showed her. On the front was a picture of the school building.
「That’s a lie! There’s no way a scrap of paper can defend against my attack.」
「I just blocked it didn’t I?」
As her temper boiled, she clenched her blade tightly.
「Impossible!」
No matter how much magic you cover ordinary paper in there was a limit to it’s durability, and it would definitely lose in terms of power against Tesfia’s blunt blade. That would be the case for a normal mage.
It would be almost an impossible task to imbue paper that wasn’t even an AWR with magic. This sort of aberrant technique was what earned him a spot as a Single Mage.
Immediately Tesfia raised her weapon and came charging in for the second time.
However, no matter how many times Tesfia swung her blade, Ars defended against them all with his pamphlet.
She then raised her blade.
「……………」
Tesfia who was trying to make large swings in close combat was full of openings.
Ars wasn’t so patient to keep on stopping her blows.
Ars’s pamphlet magnificently made contact with Tesfia’s face. A cry tore through the air full of tension and echoed throughout the stadium.
Tesfia was blown through the air and tumbled across the ground as she fell down. Her disheveled red hair was spread all over the ground.
「FIA!!」
Alice instinctively called out towards Tesfia who had rolled several times before stopping.
Alice, as the only spectator in this arena realized that the attack wasn’t due to magic. There was no chant and no trace of any magic flow.
It was all due to the strength of a rolled up pamphlet that it’s strike was able to send a person flying away.
He felt guilty about striking a woman’s face but the practice arena would convert all physical harm into mental harm, leaving no wounds or traces. More than anything else, there were no differences between males or females who aimed to become mages. He would not go easy on someone who aspired to become a mage, even if they were female.
1. そこに魔力が通っていることは疑いようがないのだが、魔力そのものというわけではない It says that it IS magic going back and forth but not magic ITSELF.↑
2. Idiom here to say that everyone would conform and go along with the wishes of people that are stronger than them, gain their favor etc.
(In this case suck up to Alice and Tesfia)↑