Ophelia (2)
I recognized her immediately. Long silver hair that seemed to glow even in the darkness of night, paired with those striking blue eyes. The massive bow in her hands and her neat, elegant attire chosen specifically for archery practice completed the picture. She stood there, every detail from the game now brought to vivid life.
She’s still practicing at this hour?
The training grounds were usually deserted at night. Most freshmen were too busy enjoying their exciting new campus life as academy newcomers. There were a few exceptions, though, and Ophelia was one of them. True to her diligent nature, she had been training here morning and evening since the start of the semester. But I didn’t remember her ever staying this late. Just last night, the place had been completely empty.
I had been here alone then. Since I needed to practice Magic Missile stacking, I deliberately chose the dead of night when the grounds were empty. I didn’t want to draw any attention.
Still, I can’t skip tonight’s training.
I pulled my gaze away from Ophelia and headed toward one side of the training grounds. I didn’t need to stack spells when practicing accuracy. Besides, stacking burned through my mana reserves, so it was better to save it for the end of my session. By then, she would probably have returned to the dorms.
Clang!
The moment I started practicing, a sharp, vicious sound rang out from beside me. It was the noise of a mana-infused arrow slamming into the training dummy’s magical barrier. A flash like lightning accompanied it—fitting for the top student. It was completely different from my Magic Missile, which simply got quietly absorbed and vanished without stacking.
Even so, the dummy repelled Ophelia’s arrow. The barrier had been cast by Professor Evelyn herself, a renowned Great Mage. No matter how talented a first-year was, they couldn’t even scratch it. That made it perfect for practicing spell targeting.
She keeps glancing over here.
I was standing at a distance, firing Magic Missiles at the dummy, when I felt her eyes flicking toward me. I had been staring at her first, so I couldn’t really complain, but she seemed unusually interested in what I was doing. There was no reason for the top student to care about someone like me, who was basically at the bottom of the class.
My Magic Missile was fairly impressive even without stacking, but it was still just a basic spell. Compared to Ophelia’s specialty—mana-enchanted arrows—it was fundamentally different.
Maybe I should take a short break.
Six out of ten shots. One more hit than yesterday. Repeatedly focusing on distant targets took a lot of time and was surprisingly exhausting. For Kael, whose body had always been frail, it was even worse.
I walked over to the bench in the back to rest and cool down. Ophelia, who had been practicing since before I arrived, showed no signs of fatigue. She continued shooting with silent focus. It had been quite a while since I got here, yet her concentration was incredible. The amount of mana in each arrow must have been enormous. The fact that she wasn’t getting tired at all suggested her mana pool was massive.
Is she finally leaving?
Ophelia took a deep breath, then walked up to the dummy and began collecting the arrows that had fallen to the ground. But instead of heading back to the storage area as I expected, she turned and walked straight toward me.
“Do you have a moment?”
What? Why me?
I had no idea what was going on.
Ophelia’s Perspective
Ophelia had deliberately stayed at the training grounds until late tonight. The one who had broken Professor Evelyn’s barrier was almost certainly the student who had remained here last night. There was a chance that same student would show up again at the same time today. She wanted to see it with her own eyes.
She wanted to know exactly who this incredible person was—the one who had surpassed her in less than a week.
He’s here.
The sound of footsteps made her forget the arrow she had just nocked. She turned to look. It was a small boy wearing a first-year uniform. He was carrying a staff that looked slightly too large for his frame.
Could it be him?
His build was frail, but a mage’s power didn’t come from physical strength. It was entirely possible he could wield incredibly powerful magic despite appearances.
Lower Class…?
But when Ophelia saw the color of the badge on the boy who had entered the grounds, she couldn’t hide her disappointment. A bronze tag. The boy who had just arrived was a Lower Class student. Then it couldn’t be him. It had to be someone from the Upper Class like her, or at the very least, one of the top students in the Middle Class. There was no way the prodigy who had shocked Professor Evelyn would have scored low enough on the entrance exam to be placed in the Lower Class.
That spot…
Still, the small boy made it difficult for Ophelia to completely lose interest. The position he walked to and stopped at was exactly the line where the problematic dummy had stood. It had since been replaced with a new one, but the barrier on the dummy that had been in that exact spot had been shattered. It was probably just a coincidence that the boy chose that spot, but it still nagged at her.
Maybe the person isn’t coming today.
Quite a bit of time had passed since the boy arrived, and no one else had shown up at the training grounds. During that time, the boy had diligently practiced his Magic Missile. He missed about half his shots, but the spell itself was excellent for a basic Magic Missile. Still, there was no way he could have broken the barrier with just that, so the chances of him being the person she was looking for were zero.
But he might have seen something.
When she saw the boy head to the bench to rest, Ophelia decided to approach. If he had been here at this time yesterday too, there was a chance he might have witnessed the student she was searching for. It couldn’t hurt to ask. Truthfully, she had been dying to ask for a while now, but she had held back so she wouldn’t disturb his practice.
Ophelia gathered the scattered arrows and walked over to where the boy was sitting.
“Do you have a moment?”
The boy looked slightly flustered by her question. That reaction was familiar. Students always saw the Lanchester family name before they saw her as a person. That was why even a simple greeting from her often left them flustered and awkward.
Inside the academy, we are all equal students.
She liked that rule, so it was a shame to see this happen. Still, she understood how they felt and never showed her disappointment.
“I’m Ophelia.”
“Uh… I’m Kael. This is the first time we’ve actually talked, huh.”
A response came to her brief greeting. It was a little surprising. The boy named Kael seemed only mildly awkward at their first meeting. His attitude was perfectly normal, like how he would treat any other classmate. It was completely different from the other students who would squeal, become terrified, or stutter in front of her.
“Can I sit next to you?”
“Sure.”
With Kael’s permission, Ophelia sat on the same bench, leaving a bit of space between them. She turned her head and quietly studied his eyes. There was no trace of the fear or unwelcome reverence she had seen countless times before. It made her feel comfortable asking what she wanted to know.
“I have something I want to ask you.”
“Me?”
“Yes.”
“Well… go ahead and ask.”
Kael’s attitude—treating her like an ordinary student—was refreshing, but her main focus right now was elsewhere. The person who had destroyed the barrier last night. That was what she wanted to talk about.
“Do you come to the training grounds often?”
“Hmm… sometimes?”
“What about yesterday?”
“……I was here yesterday too.”
Kael paused slightly before answering. It looked like he was thinking about something, or maybe just trying to recall the memory.
“Did you come at the same time yesterday?”
“Yeah. Same time as today.”
Ophelia felt her heart begin to race.
Then he must have seen that student.
She kept her expression perfectly composed, just as she had been taught, but she couldn’t control the rapid beating of her heart.
“Then… was there anyone else here with you yesterday?”
Ophelia swallowed hard and waited for his answer.
“I was alone.”
“That’s impossible……”
She was so shocked that she accidentally spoke her true thoughts out loud. It was the first time her expression had changed since entering the academy.
“Huh?”
“No… it’s nothing.”
Luckily, it seemed Kael hadn’t heard her mutter. Not that it mattered right now. If what he said was true…
Then this boy is the one who broke the barrier…?
It was unbelievable. Then what was that Lower Class badge on his chest? Moreover, she had seen his magic skills up close today. His Magic Missile had been quite good, but he had struggled just to hit a stationary dummy. There was no way someone with that level of skill could have broken Professor Evelyn’s barrier. She had to be missing something. Maybe their timings had just barely missed each other.
Even as she thought that, she found it difficult to lose interest in this boy named Kael.
***
“Well then……”
It was time for the training grounds to close. Standing in front of the darkened grounds, Ophelia gently lifted the hem of her skirt with both hands and gave a slight curtsy.
“Uh… have a good night.”
I realized a beat too late that it was a noble lady’s farewell and awkwardly waved in return. With that, she left.
What was that all about?
Until now, Ophelia and I had no connection whatsoever. The only time I had seen her was during the entrance ceremony, and even then it had been from a distance. So when she suddenly approached and spoke to me earlier, I had been genuinely surprised. It was an event that hadn’t even existed in the game.
Because of that, I had only practiced my accuracy and never got the chance to try stacking spells.
Still, I guess making an impression like that is a good thing.
It had been completely unexpected, but thinking about it, there was nothing bad about it. Considering the first task’s group formation that would be happening soon, having already broken the ice with her was actually beneficial. After all, the surest way to encounter that boss monster was to be placed in the same group as her.