Chapter 55
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 55
Chapter Title: Midterm Evaluation (6)
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"You okay?"
I reached out to Cecilia, who had fallen backward due to my sudden approach, and asked if she was all right.
She quickly erased the flustered look from her face, grabbed my hand with a faint smile, and pulled herself up, continuing,
"I'm fine, Brother."
"Good to hear."
"By the way, even though you say no... your faith must be pretty strong, huh?"
After saying she was okay came the comment about her impressive faith.
From her perspective, someone like me moving freely in a sanctuary that debuffs those with low faith would look like a person of exceptional devotion.
"Nah... it's just strong mental fortitude."
"Hmm... is that really it...?"
But when I denied it, claiming it was just good mental strength rather than faith, Cecilia shot me a meaningful glance like she couldn't quite believe it.
She soon withdrew her gaze and started walking out of the arena.
"See ya."
"Yeah, see you next time, Brother. Hopefully at church."
And back to the spectator seats we went.
Having finished our first match, we exchanged brief greetings to prepare for the second round and returned to our seats to wait our turn.
The next up was
the duel with second-place Libia Clawit.
Boom!
Libia Clawit.
Disciple of the great Sword Saint,
and daughter of the empire's duke, House Clawit.
Right now, she lay on the arena floor during the academy's midterm evaluation, gazing up at the sky.
'So clear...'
The sky was spotless, cloud-free, but tinged yellow as the sun began to set.
While admiring that strangely beautiful sight—
a face suddenly popped into view, speaking to me.
"Libia, you okay?"
'He's so handsome...'
His brilliantly shining white hair,
distinct facial features and pretty skin,
and those hollow golden eyes that made it all stand out.
'What do I do...'
The more time passed, the less my feelings for Aden faded—in fact, they grew to the point where I could hardly hold them back.
The more I thought of Aden, the more my heart fluttered and my face flushed.
"I'm fine!"
So I stopped thinking about him and quickly answered, getting to my feet.
As we finished the match and walked out of the arena toward the spectator seats together—
"Libia."
"Yeah?"
"Give it your all against Isabel."
Those simple, casual words of encouragement from Aden brought back the embarrassment I'd just calmed,
Thump—
Thump—
and my heart started racing again, impossible to soothe.
'Aden seems totally unfazed...'
Yet Aden looked completely unaffected, even as I felt this embarrassed...
'It's not fair...'
Every time this happened, I couldn't help feeling unfairly frustrated.
'Someday...'
So as I watched Aden turn away after his one line of cheer and head back to his seat,
I resolved once more:
Someday,
I'd make Aden feel this way too...
Then I turned back and returned to my seat.
After that,
I sat calming my heart,
waiting for the final match of the midterm evaluation...
my duel with Isabel—
[Cadet Libia Clawit, Cadet Isabel Helm, please come down to the arena.]
At last, the announcement called us both,
and I stood and headed down.
There I saw Isabel approaching from the opposite side.
I lightly opened my mouth toward her.
"Hey, Isabel."
"Hey, Libia. Good to see you."
Both Isabel and I spoke not in our usual lively tones,
but with tension laced in our voices.
'I'm definitely winning this...'
In that tension,
we probably shared the exact same goal.
Victory.
But beyond just my second-place ranking,
I had one more reason to win...
'Give it your all against Isabel.'
Having received Aden's encouragement,
I hadn't wanted to lose anyway,
but now I absolutely couldn't.
As my competitive fire burned...
"You two can enter now."
The academy staff guiding us from the waiting area spoke, signaling it was time.
Hearing that,
we rose together and entered the arena,
Whoaaaa—!!
and cheers filled the arena, flooding our ears.
But with no time to bask in them,
we stood at the center, facing each other, and spoke.
"Please take care of me."
With the formal pre-match greeting done...
The referee's start signal rang out,
and the duel began.
{Blink}.
Seeing it, Isabel—as always—used Blink right at the start to put distance between us.
And immediately after, her magic.
{Ice Field}.
As she cast it,
a familiar ice sheet spread around her...
'Current magic...?'
'Yeah, step on it and currents flow in.'
It was the spell she'd first shown me during the comprehensive evaluation week,
made for duels against melee cadets.
'Aden broke it easily, though...'
Aden had shattered it with raw power,
and aside from that one person,
no melee cadet had beaten Isabel after she deployed it,
'Time to make it two...'
but now it was my turn to be the exception.
With that thought, I wrapped mana around my body and sword,
and charged toward Isabel.
Before I could get close, magic circles unfolded:
fireballs mixed among simple ice spears came threateningly at me one by one.
Bang!
But if I carelessly broke the ice spears, they'd trigger embedded spells—exploding,
spewing electricity or fire...
Annoyingly persistent attacks kept coming,
but as long as Isabel stayed within that ice floor,
closing in easily was impossible.
'Weakness...? I can't move freely in there either.'
'Then...'
But if Isabel was also affected by the current magic engraved on the ice,
all I needed was to make her move first, before stepping on it myself.
So I gathered mana in my legs, preparing to leap at her.
And—
Boom!
Concentrating all the mana I could muster into my legs,
I launched toward Isabel at an overwhelming speed unlike before.
'Got it...!'
Before my legs touched the ice,
my max-speed approach forced Isabel to hastily conjure ice spears with her hands.
Seeing that,
I was certain my sword would reach her first...
Swish—
"Huh...?"
But the sword I thought would hit first sliced empty air...
"Idiot."
With Isabel's short word,
the ice spear from her hand struck me first.
Boom!
"Guh—!"
Then the embedded explosion magic triggered,
and after searing pain and a brief float,
my limp body crashed and rolled across the arena floor.
'Hot...'
Afterward,
I rolled desperately on the ground to extinguish the burning pain.
Boom!
Just then, an ice spear exploded where I'd been lying.
'Ruthless...'
Witnessing those merciless attacks,
I got up and quickly regrouped.
"That... it's just an ice floor, huh."
Glancing at Isabel freely traversing the ice and preparing her next attack, I spoke.
"Duh, you should've expected that."
Isabel replied with a light sneer.
As I'd suspected,
her Ice Field hadn't had any magic engravings when first deployed.
'My mistake...'
Every Ice Field she'd used before had engravings,
so I'd naturally assumed this one did too. Clear misstep on my part.
'Gotta close in...'
But the mistake was done,
so I started thinking of ways to approach Isabel again.
In magic vs. melee fights, distance is key.
If I could close it faster than she could react,
I could overturn this disadvantage and beat her in one go.
But how?
I had no way to reach that speed.
Crackle!
Boom!
As I dodged incoming spells and ice spears, racking my brain for a way to approach—
'Huh...?'
When the magic inside Isabel's ice spears activated,
a brief glow caught my eye.
Crackle!
A faint yellow light for lightning magic—
Boom!
A faint red for explosion magic—
Seeing that,
a good idea sparked in my head.
'If it fails, I'm done for...'
It was a gamble—failure meant near-certain loss,
but sticking to the current situation had high loss odds anyway.
Worth the shot.
Crackle!
While focusing on Isabel's ice spears and dodging other attacks—
Finally,
an ice spear from her began glowing red.
'Now...!'
I instantly focused mana in my legs, leaped in front of it—
Boom!
using the explosion's recoil to propel forward,
rapidly closing the distance to Isabel.
"Isaaabel—!!"
"Huh...?"
She panicked briefly—
and hastily prepared Blink, but...
'Wha...? Faster than I thought...??'
Thud—!!
Faster still—
Unable to control my speed, my head collided with Isabel's...
As the referee rushed toward us,
my vision went black.