The Duel
The sparring ring at the edge of the training grounds.
Eva and I stood facing each other from opposite ends of the ring.
"L-L-Let's do our best!"
"Sure."
Eva clutched her dueling staff to her chest like a small child hugging a doll in a darkened room.
A candle flame in the wind — she looked so fragile she might go out at any moment.
If I startled her from over here, her soul might just leave her body entirely.
"Somehow, I just had a feeling it would turn out that way."
The purpose of this duel was to gauge how strong our teammates were before the aptitude evaluation — the exam that would measure our abilities.
As team leader, Chloe already knew her own level well enough.
And she had crossed blades with me once before, on the day of the entrance exam.
The strength I'd shown when I shattered her mana barrier and overwhelmed her, the top-ranked student.
Even if I fought half-heartedly, she'd calculated that I could easily take down a student or two in the aptitude evaluation on my own.
In other words, there was no way the two of us would score poorly in duels or practical combat.
The only real variable was the written test — I'd missed one question, and Chloe, ever the model student, had aced hers.
Practice questions.
Aside from a few, the difficulty hadn't been all that high, but solving everything within the brutally tight time limit was another matter.
The fact that Chloe had cracked the genuinely difficult, high-level problems was what pulled her attention elsewhere.
Eva and Marin — problem children who, going by the results alone, looked like they'd struggle to clear the average.
Chloe must have realized that giving them focused care had to be her top priority.
'So she's staging a duel between Eva and me to draw out that girl's talent.'
Eva's potential easily surpassed even Chloe's — the girl they called the Sword Saint's daughter.
All she needed was confidence, and she'd pull top-tier results in duels and practical combat alike.
"Eva, don't you dare go easy on that bastard! Attack like you're trying to kill him!"
"Eeeh! B-But that's a bit..."
"He's the man who shattered the Academy's mana barrier with his bare hands, no matter how he looks. Go all out — he'll be fine."
"R-Really?!"
Like hell.
The barrier exists because getting hit hurts, because people bleed and break, you know.
And there's Chloe, talking as if whether I get hurt or not is none of her concern.
"And you! Watch your strength! Go all-out on her and she'll die, got it?"
"Ugh, this bastard never shuts up."
And then there's her, threatening me into holding back. Unbelievable.
I get what she's doing — arranging the whole board so Eva's potential blossoms and she gains confidence in combat — but making me the sandbag whose job is to make her shine? That's a bit much.
"I don't like it, but I suppose I'll just grit my teeth and bear it. It's all part of the plan."
Eva had to score high on the aptitude evaluation for Chloe to come one step closer to that girl's dream.
The moment I worked out that much, I could see how to make things awkward between the two of them.
It left a bad taste in my mouth, but here, playing along was the smarter move.
"Everyone ready?"
"Ready. Start whenever."
"Uuuuuuuu!"
I pulled on my dueling gloves and took my stance.
Taking Chloe's words to heart, I planned to orient my fighting style toward defending against Eva's attacks as much as possible.
Eva was trembling like a leaf, but she'd circulated the mana coiled around her heart so that even in an emergency, she could respond with magic.
"Begin!"
Chloe's declaration.
Match start.
The instant she gave the signal, Eva deployed her magic.
"M-Mongle! Please, I'm counting on you!"
"Moooong!"
A giant plush answered Eva's call.
A long, plush body, generously proportioned.
A stuffed animal shaped like a brown-furred dog planted itself between Eva and me.
"Wow. What a figure."
"If I actually went all-out here, I'd never hear the end of it."
What Eva had summoned was the mascot from Cutie-Tee, the children's anime she adored.
A life born from the beloved stuffed toy she'd cherished since childhood, animated by the mana she breathed into it.
If I ever punched a hole through something she treasured that much, she'd resent me for the rest of my life.
But then why on earth would she bring it out in a duel, where it could get hurt?
"N-Nobody can hit me while I have this... You can't hit me, mister..."
"Oh? Why not? You don't think the guy who smashed a mana barrier can't tear through this wall, do you?"
"B-But it's cute. You wouldn't... you wouldn't really hit it, would you?"
She had confidence in it.
A softness that made you want to reach out and pinch its cheeks.
A cuteness that made you want to scoop it up and hug it the moment you laid eyes on it.
For anyone born human, could there really be a soul capable of wounding this creature?
No, she was certain — there absolutely was not.
"Come on now, kneel before our Mongle's adorable majesty!"
"No shame in it. How people live their lives is up to them."
It'll be black-history material for Eva someday, sure.
But the way she pours her heart into a character she loves — that's more than enough to stir the heart of a true otaku.
"Hnngh, Eva. What am I supposed to do with someone so pure?"
Chloe bit down on a handkerchief like a lover saying farewell, fat tears rolling down her cheeks as she gazed at Eva.
Bowing to that girl's untainted innocence, she showered her with applause.
"What an absolute circus this is."
What is wrong with this woman now?
At a spectacle that ridiculous, I could only snort.
If I'd pulled anything like that, she'd have stormed the arena and started swinging a sword on the spot.
"Ehehe... N-Now that I have an invincible barrier, I can attack as much as I want!"
"Ah. Right."
I picked at my nose and put on a bored expression.
What I really wanted was for her to hurry up and hit me with some proper magic.
It would knock some sense of reality into her — and maybe let me punch a hole through the plush's belly while I was at it.
But then she'd wail and carry on over her newly-made donut of a doll, so I deliberately didn't press forward and ceded the first move to Eva.
"H-Here I come!"
Complex geometric patterns wove themselves into a magic circle at the tip of her staff and her fingertips.
Double casting.
Firing two spells at once, she fixed me as her target.
Whooooosh!
The end of her staff blazed like a flashbulb.
A howling vortex.
Dressed in a shrill, blade-sharpening shriek of tearing metal, it came flying at me, hell-bent on shredding whatever it swallowed to ribbons.
'This much? Easy.'
I concentrated mana into my fingertips.
Golden energy, sparkling bright.
The moment I willed it to fire, the mana answered.
Pew!
A beam tracing a perfect straight line.
Compressed light-energy bored a hole through the spinning storm in the blink of an eye.
Fwat!
"Ah — my spell!"
Her magic vanished into nothing, and Eva's eyes went wide as saucers.
She seemed baffled as to why her spell had been canceled just from being struck by a laser made of light.
"Against mages, there's no cheat skill quite like it."
Usurper — the power usable only by those who carry the mana of the Sun.
By channeling my mana into someone else's spell, I could temporarily seize ownership of the magic itself.
In the latter half of the original's third arc, when Solis fought Eva to the death, it was this very technique that drove her to the wall.
No matter how devastating the spells she unleashed, the mere brush of his mana made them vanish — her specialty was utterly useless against him.
Eva studied Solis's every move, hunted down the technique's weakness, and eventually saw through it — but that was Eva after her growth was complete, on the eve of her final battle against the boss.
For a first-year Eva who fell for every trick in the book, it was never going to be easy.
"I'm just laying the groundwork she needs to grow. Besides, I won't use anything else — only this technique."
If I went further and stacked on Solis's secret art, the Solar Avatar, Eva would lose even the sliver of a thread's hope of winning.
But since my main goal was, above all, to help her grow, I placed limits on my power.
Honestly, even so, I figured this was a brutal wall for Eva.
Using a spell-canceling technique against a mage whose entire arsenal was magic.
Even I could admit this was a bit much.
"T-Then how about this!"
Far from being paralyzed by despair, Eva pulled out her next move.
Watching her act as if a canceled spell were nothing at all, the corner of my mouth curled up.
That's the protagonist of Academy Yuri Princess for you.
A shut-in who hates leaving her room.
Passive, easily swayed, with her share of foolish moments — but the moment she resolves to see something through, even if someone forces it on her, she commits to it with total sincerity.
That was exactly why the Writer had chosen her as the protagonist of her web novel.
Fwat!
The magic circle etched into her palm, activated in tandem with her staff — the spell had already done its job.
Shaaash!
"This is—"
The spell she'd cast back at the entrance exam, wary of me appearing out of nowhere in the sky above.
One of Eva's signature spells, and it boasted considerable restraining power.
"That one won't be enough, though."
And sure enough — failure.
I caught the chains with my hand, let my mana flow into them, and the links shattered into fragments like broken glass, scattering into the air.
Eva probably knew it would happen, too.
She wasn't oblivious enough to expect otherwise.
Swish!
The third spell.
She'd drawn out a hidden card.
A compressed air bullet.
Spiraling at high speed, carving its trajectory — it came for me like an invisible blade.
Three simultaneous spells was the current limit of what Eva could manage.
Block this one, and the opening was mine.
It was fast enough to be nearly invisible, but I'd gotten a rough read on its course.
That was enough.
I condensed light-mana just like before and fired at her spell.
Fwiiiip!
"Hm?"
But the spell bent at an unnatural angle and slipped past it.
'She's steering the spell.'
To kill a person, you don't need flashy magic — crashing waves or summoned typhoons.
A single small bullet capable of punching through a body was more than enough.
She'd staked the whole fight on this air bullet.
And it was already right in front of me.
I flooded my hand with mana and tried to seize it, but it slipped away nimbly, weaving like a mosquito.
Eva had already figured it out, too — that flooding a spell with my mana was the condition for cancellation.
So she'd leaned into her own strength.
As a mage, her mana manipulation was far more refined than mine.
She used that advantage, that delicacy, to open a gap in my defense.
'Well, this is impressive.'
I marveled at her remarkable growth.
I'd expected her to flounder, thrashing around without an answer — but instead, Eva had elegantly seen through my technique.
'She really is the protagonist.'
Eva had shown me results beyond anything I'd imagined.
I offered silent praise for her effort and accepted the outcome with grace.
KWAANG!
The wind bullet struck me square in the temple.
"Ow."
A jolt of searing pain shot through me, and I winced.