I've Never Heard of a Berserker Like That
I'd never heard of a berserker like that.
Helena was on the quieter side, but her temperament itself was… well, rounded might be the word. Soft. Even-tempered.
"Gardun."
A first-year freshman in the Magic Division, and she was already calling forth a mid-tier earth spirit. Helena got straight to work.
For someone who was, at most, an academy first-year, a mid-tier spirit summon already—she really did have the skill to be called the finest among the Magic Division's new students.
Rumble…
A deep vibration rose—no, a sound as if the entire mountain itself were thrumming.
"…Earth magic isn't exactly my specialty," she said.
But with the spirit Gardun's power, and Helena lending a hand with earth magic of her own, the mountain's scarred face—the damage I had left—filled in almost at once with rock and soil, its shape restored.
And this is her when it isn't even her specialty?
I'd wondered how good the top Magic freshman could really be. Now I knew. First-year or not, she handled elemental magic and spirit arts both with real competence.
Wait. If she kept this up, what was left for the rest of us to do…?
"Don't be ridiculous. If that were the case, why did you bring the others?"
Nariel scoffed at me with open disbelief.
"Then what?"
"Don't take nature lightly. Just packing in rock and dirt so the surface looks presentable isn't the whole of it."
Well. Fair enough. If it were that simple, we'd have brought only Helena in the first place…
"Honestly, we climbed up here thinking we'd at least dig a little."
"Then dig."
"Huh?"
"Do it."
"…How, exactly?"
"That white-haired girl with the magic and her spirit have already prepared the materials, haven't they?"
Nariel jerked a thumb back over her shoulder toward Helena. There was a faint, amused smile on her face—she seemed to have taken a real liking to the girl.
"Right?"
"Then you know what has to be done. The materials are all here, but right now it's nothing more than loose earth dumped over the ground."
"Is that so."
Even with magic and spirits lending their strength, she said, magic was only a means. It had limits.
"The foundation is ready, though. So you have to mix the soil properly, pack the ground, and help the new earth settle. That work is essential."
"Oh… Hearing you talk like that, you really do sound like an elf."
"Dark elf. You idiot."
And so the real hard labor finally began.
Nariel would handle the final finishing, she said, so the rest of us simply did as she ordered—smoothing and packing the ground. She also planned to rebuild her house herself.
Which meant our job was simple enough.
"Erina Crossbell?"
"…What is it."
"That's not how you dig with a shovel."
"…I'll have you know I'm already working hard."
From Linea's point of view, Erina's shoveling was a flailing mess—she was driving the blade into the dirt, sort of, but with so little force it might as well have been swinging at empty air.
"Then why did you even come along… Just go sit over there and rest."
"What? I can still do this! Here, look!"
She said it, but the hands gripping the shovel already buried in the soil were trembling hard. Not only her arms—her legs too.
"Haa. You've already been at it for thirty minutes. You stuck yourself to my side to cast heals in the first place, so if you just sat still and healed, no one would say a word."
And yet she kept healing right on schedule and trying to dig. What was a healer doing pushing herself this hard?
"…But everyone's working so hard. How am I supposed to just sit around by myself…"
"Ugh."
The sentiment was lovely. Linea finished what she had started to say.
"Just do your own job properly. Working harder isn't going to increase your pay."
"W-who said anything about pay…!"
"Uryaaaaaah!"
Leard's eyes blazed red as she tore into the summit of Eunhwi Mountain with the shovel in her hands, turning the earth over wholesale.
Was that it? The berserk mode Professor Serena had mentioned Leard used?
"I never expected her to use it like that."
"But the efficiency is excellent, so what does it matter?"
Beside me, Nariel actually took Leard's side—if it was helping, that was enough.
"Well, true enough."
"Still. Something feels off."
"Hm?"
"When that child's berserk first activated, there was still some reason left in her. She was mixing the soil efficiently. Now, though…"
Nariel's voice trailed off. Her brow furrowed.
"Indeed. The longer it goes on, the more she's simply thrashing the ground without any discrimination."
"If this continues, my mountain will be ruined. That child… what should we do? Knock her out?"
Your mountain, is it.
Still… she wasn't wrong. Leard was becoming a problem. Professor Serena hadn't given clear instructions on this either, so we had no ready answer.
"This is awkward."
"Berserk inevitably uses a small amount of Magi as its trigger, and that Magi slowly eats away at the mind."
"Mm. Come to think of it, you're a dark elf—"
"That has nothing to do with me. Don't lump me in with those rough sorts just because of my skin color."
…Weren't dark elves at least rougher than ordinary elves, though?
"My apologies."
So what were we supposed to do, then?
If a dark elf drew that firm a line between herself and Magi, there wasn't much help to be had there. And this was someone else's student—could I really handle her that roughly?
"This Leard child—she used berserk even before enrollment, yes?"
"So I heard."
"Magi is a difficult power to handle even on its own."
"Is that so."
"Which is why users are nearly impossible to find on the continent now. The practice might as well be extinct."
"The opposite of Holy Power, then."
I'd heard that Headmistress Astraea had succeeded in slaying the Demon King in her day. After that, the demonkin had settled into more ordinary lives, and techniques for wielding Magi had gradually faded into history.
"Well. Yes," Nariel said, nodding quietly before she went on.
"If the body grows used to using it haphazardly, without proper knowledge or training… correcting those bad habits later becomes very hard."
She wasn't wrong.
"So what do we do about it."
"I don't know either."
"…Are you joking."
Hard to correct…
Leard was still going at it like she was having the time of her life, indiscriminately tearing up every stretch of ground in front of her with the shovel she clutched.
If we left her alone, I wasn't sure she wouldn't start attacking the other kids next. We'd divided the area and spread everyone out, and Nariel and I were watching Leard, so for now it still seemed manageable…
But as I stood there watching only her, a thought struck me.
Berserk used Magi, she'd said.
Magi. Magi was usually the force opposed to Holy Power, wasn't it?
A violent power—Magi.
Then what would happen if I pressed it down with Holy Power?
Once the idea formed, my body moved before I thought any further.
"H-hey!"
Ignoring Nariel's shout from behind, I closed the distance on Leard in an instant as she tore madly through the surroundings.
"Kngh?"
By the time Leard registered me, I already had her caught and bound.
My left arm locked around her throat and hoisted her up; my free hand pinned both her arms. From that position, no amount of thrashing would get her free of me.
And then, holding her from behind, I simply let Holy Power—the power Kyle had possessed as a Holy Knight—flow into her.
A slow, creeping warmth…
"Kh—krrrk—kyaaaaah!"
Her resistance was fiercer than I'd expected.
Not that it mattered.
The brilliant golden light I released spread gradually, starting from her back where I held her and wrapping her entire body.
I had to endure her struggling and her screams at point-blank range, but I kept pouring it in without stopping.
Thump.
The strength went out of Leard's thrashing body all at once, and she sagged back into my arms as if collapsing into me.
Is it over?
"Khhnn… Professor…?"
Yes! It worked.
"Leard. Can you stand on your own two feet?"
I supported her from behind by her upper arms and asked if she could get up—but…
"Kngh… Something feels warm and drowsy… I can't put any strength in my body… Eheh."
"…Is that so?"
"Professor, don't whisper from behind me—it tickles my ear…! Eheh. Eheh."
"…"
I could still see my Holy Power lingering around her body, wrapping her…
But that effect would fade in a few days at most.
I put a little force into the hands holding her and spun her around to face me.
"W-what? Professor?"
"Leard. Try using berserk again right now."
Her eyes went round with surprise.
"Really? I can? You saw me just a little while ago."
So she remembered after all.
"Mm."
"Professor Serena scolds me every time I use berserk, so it's a little scary…"
She didn't look it, but the kid was a bit cowed.
"Then why did you use it earlier?"
"I wanted to help even a little… I was worried I might go out of control again, but I thought maybe it would be okay here."
Well… her intentions had been good, I supposed.
Lucky for everyone that I'd been here, though.
"It's fine. Go ahead and try."
"Really? It's okay?"
"If there's a problem, I'll stop you."
"Huh? Oh—right! If the professor stops me again, it's fine!"
And with that, Leard stepped away from me and immediately started activating berserk.
"…What's the rush."
Was she that happy about it?
"Eheh. Here I go, Professor! Hah…!"
Go where? I only told her to activate it.
"Will this be all right?"
Nariel had sidled up beside me.
"Of course. My eye for this is accurate."
As I answered her, I glanced at Leard. Whatever had her so excited, she was smiling, fangs gleaming past her lips, drawing power up from beneath her feet.
A red aura began to climb, little by little.
But then, from her dantian, a golden radiance bloomed—the same light I had left in her—and it swallowed the rising red from below, pressing it down by degrees, devouring it.
And once that power settled—
Flash!
Leard kicked off the ground, drew her sword in a blink, and charged me.
Clang…!
"Did it fail…?"
Nariel murmured quietly at my side. It hadn't.
"Tsk."
"Hehe…. As expected of you, Professor. Amazing! That was my secret technique!"
"Leard. I'll take it because it's me… but I'd rather you not do that in front of other people…"
"Because you're strong, Professor…! But what is this? Even though I cast berserk, I feel better than before, and my body feels lighter…!"
True to a berserker, the high that came with activation still seemed intact…
But with the Holy Power nested in her body intervening, she looked able to keep her reason under control.
"The Holy Power I poured into you is helping you control the berserk."
"That's what it is? That's what it is? Amazing! Professor!"
"But it won't last long. It isn't something you possess—I artificially injected it into your body."
"Mmm~ is that so?"
"That's so."
Which, unfortunately, meant I would have to visit her regularly and push Holy Power into her again…
And that was only while we were both at the academy. Once Leard graduated, or whenever I wasn't around—
"Then Professor! I want to learn Holy Power too!"
"What?"
Learn what, now?
"How to use Holy Power! Teach me! Eheh."