Chapter 43
Chapter 43
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 43
Chapter Title: Placement Exam (4)
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“Eh—? A hobby?”
Ciel touched her finger to her chin with a puzzled expression, pondering deeply before her face lit up in surprise.
“Jeron, you’re amazing—. To reach that level as just a hobby—.”
Rather than being shocked, her reaction was one of pure admiration.
‘…You’re just accepting it like that?!’
Even for Ciel, I figured she’d at least be a little taken aback by someone casually claiming legendary black magic was a “hobby” after pulling it off perfectly.
Sloth points tended to rack up more when the reaction was intense, so I’d deliberately tried to provoke her to farm some laziness.
But she straight-up believed it, leaving me the flustered one instead.
In the worldview of Ciel—a genius from beyond the heavens—mages who wielded legendary black magic as a hobby fell squarely into the category of “impressive but totally plausible”…!
[Laziness detected in your statement!]
[Sloth +20!]
Maybe that was why the sloth points I got were less than expected.
Is this what genius intuition feels like?
A fake genius like me can’t keep up.
I swallowed my bitterness inwardly.
“Hey, Jeron—. That black thing from earlier—.”
Ciel scooted right up next to me and asked.
“What’s the trick to gathering mana so steadily—?”
‘…I have no idea.’
Of course, I didn’t have any such knowledge.
It was just a skill click.
But ignoring her or brushing it off wouldn’t work—Ciel’s personality meant she’d just keep pressing.
“Hmm….”
So.
I put on the most profound expression I could muster and tossed out some vague, abstract advice.
“Just let it go.”
“Let it go…?”
“Yeah. Don’t force it. Just let it flow.”
Of course, even I had no clue what I was saying.
It was Plan B-3: Bullshit your way through.
But.
“Aah, I get it—. I think I kinda understand now. You really are amazing, Jeron—!”
Ciel nodded vigorously, as if she’d just had an epiphany.
‘…Argh. What the hell are you even understanding?’
I just hoped this weird conversation would end soon.
If it dragged on, my ignorance might get exposed.
Right on cue.
“Announcement: Cadet Ciel Ifrit of Arena 5, please proceed to the arena immediately. Failure to arrive within 10 minutes will result in a forfeit.”
The announcement echoed throughout the entire arena district.
It was calling for Ciel.
“…Wait, Ciel, isn’t it your turn to fight?”
“Oh. I forgot—!”
Ciel blinked in realization.
“But I wanna talk with you more, Jeron—. Should I just skip it—?”
I was in a bind.
What if Ciel actually skipped her match here and took a forfeit?
She was supposed to dominate with overwhelming skill and claim an S-Rank spot in the original story. This could derail the plot from the start.
But telling her “You gotta go!” outright would be way too diligent.
‘What do I do?’
As I hesitated, I spotted an instructor wandering nearby.
‘Perfect.’
I deliberately raised my voice loud enough for the instructor to hear and said to Ciel.
“Hahaha, sure, sure. I wanna hang with Ciel too. Let’s have some fun with the tardy Ciel. I. F. R. I. T. cadet~!”
Catching my obvious hint, the instructor finally turned toward us.
“Huh? You there! Cadet Ciel Ifrit? What are you doing here! Get to your match now!”
“Eek—!”
As the instructor rushed over, Ciel made a pouty face and clung to me.
But in the end, she was dragged off by the instructor toward her arena.
“Nooo, I’m being kidnapped— Jeron, save me—!”
‘Phew, crisis averted.’
I let out a sigh of relief as I watched Ciel being hauled away.
Hmm. So what now?
Arena 7 right in front of me was under emergency maintenance from the earlier chaos.
Which meant the next match wouldn’t start for a while.
‘…Kinda feel bad.’
With nothing else to do, standing around felt awkward.
Part of it was guilt over wrecking the arena, and the constant whispers and stares from the crowd weren’t helping.
In the end, I headed over to Arena 5—where Ciel had just been dragged off—to watch.
Her match was just about to start.
She stood in the arena, lost in thought with a furrowed brow.
“Is that the girl who placed 4th in the entrance exam?”
“Yeah, the genius witch from the Magic Tower.”
“I heard rumors she’s the youngest Magic Tower heir candidate….”
Ciel rarely ventured out, so she wasn’t well-known at the academy.
If anything, she was shrouded in mystery.
I’d heard she acted as lazily as I did in class, never really standing out.
This was her debut of sorts, so a decent crowd had gathered in the stands.
I found a seat and watched to see what kind of fight she’d put on.
“Arena 5: Cadet Ciel Ifrit vs. Cadet Ricard Phaen. Begin!”
The match started with the instructor’s signal.
Her opponent was Ricard Phaen, a fairly skilled guy from the Swordsmanship Department.
He charged at Ciel with a spirited shout.
But.
Ciel didn’t seem interested in fighting at all.
“Hmm—.”
She just stood there motionless.
Deeply focused on something.
“Hah!”
Right before his sword reached her.
“Like this…?”
Ciel extended her hand.
A black barrier formed around her.
It resembled [Shadow Veil Barrier], but somewhat unstable.
Clang!
His sword was blocked and couldn’t advance, but the barrier trembled like it might shatter any second.
Crack!
After a few more swings, Ciel’s barrier shattered like glass.
The opponent kept attacking, and Ciel barely managed to reform fragile barriers to block each time.
“…?”
A murmur of confusion rose from the stands.
“Huh…?”
“What’s she doing? Just defending?”
“And it keeps breaking?”
“The Magic Tower genius is only this good…?”
But I was dumbfounded.
‘Holy shit. She’s actually imitating it.’
It was clumsy compared to my original, sure….
But to mimic a mid-tier legendary black magic spell like [Shadow Veil Barrier] after seeing it just once?
Even though regular magic and black magic worked on completely different principles.
What an absurd genius.
“Mm—. Jeron’s was way better than this—.”
And so, Ciel kept at her bizarre routine: no attacks, just spawning unstable black barriers every time he swung.
Her opponent looked utterly baffled as he hammered away at them.
After struggling like that for a while, Ciel finally let out a deep sigh.
“Ugh, not working. Super annoying—. Guess I’ll learn it from Jeron later—.”
She casually flicked her wrist.
In an instant, a blinding flash of light erupted from her fingertips.
Flash.
Boom—!
The opponent had no chance to defend and was instantly swept away by the beam, retiring on the spot.
And the aftermath didn’t stop there.
The beam shot straight ahead, smashing right through the wall of Arena 5.
Bricks crumbled, smoke billowed.
“Match over! Match over!”
The instructor hurriedly cast defensive magic to contain it, and thankfully no one was hurt….
“…….”
Silence fell over the stands.
Two arenas destroyed in a single day at Stella Academy.
“Victory V—.”
Ciel looked toward me in the stands and flashed a V-sign with both hands.
‘Ha.’
Yeah.
That’s Ciel for you.
To catch up to that once-in-a-generation genius monster girl….
I figured I’d need to slack even harder.
***
“Jeron, Jeron—.”
Having wrapped up her match in record time, Ciel was back clinging to me and chattering away.
“How was it just now—? I tried it based on your advice, and it kinda worked—. But man, it’s tough—.”
Truth be told, I’d initially tried to slip away into the crowd unnoticed.
Talking more about black magic or magic would be trouble.
But somehow, she spotted me in the throng like a ghost and stuck right to my side.
“There’s something I’m a bit confused about—. That spell—was it combining light and darkness attributes? Or just pure darkness?”
[Warning! Diligent behavior detected!]
Stop with the diligent magic research!
Ciel was overwhelming enough, and now the system was chiming in.
‘No choice. Time to deploy this.’
I pulled out my trump card to shut Ciel up.
If Plan B-3 bullshit didn’t work…
Plan B-4: Popcorn!
“In my opinion, it’s about blending light and darkness— Mmph?”
I fished some popcorn from my Subspace Pocket and stuffed it straight into her mouth. Physically sealing it shut.
[Interrupted with popcorn]
[Laziness detected!]
[Sloth +10!]
Munch munch.
Thankfully, Ciel seemed to love the popcorn and quietly chewed instead of asking more questions.
I periodically fed her more while checking out the other arenas.
‘Artel and Yuria probably won without issue anyway.’
It was a chance to scope out key characters from other departments, ones I rarely crossed paths with due to different classes.
Not for any special reason—just my bias as a hardcore [Stella Academia] fan.
‘Why’s that one so crowded?’
A huge crowd had gathered at the central arena, so I headed there.
In the middle stood a female cadet with long, pale pink hair.
The standout detail: she wasn’t in the standard uniform but a pure white nun’s habit.
‘Ah. It’s her.’
I knew her well.
The match seemed over already. A spearman from the Specialties Department knelt before her, gasping for breath.
Then, she approached and offered her hand with an infinitely compassionate smile.
“Brother, that was a fine match.”
“Ahh…!”
The spearman looked deeply moved.
Her sportsmanship toward the loser drew cheers from the crowd.
She rewarded them with a gentle smile and a wave.
Her identity was….
“Kyaa! Saintess!”
“How can her heart be so pure!”
“She’s too beautiful….”
2nd place in the entrance exam, from the Divinity Department.
The woman blessed by the gods, officially recognized by the Holy Kingdom.
‘Saintess’ Justina.
But.
I let out a hollow chuckle at the sight.
‘Damn. She’s a good actress.’
No one else might know, but I alone knew her true nature.