Chapter 327
Chapter 327
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Translator: Ace
Chapter: 327
Chapter Title: Second Outing (5)
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But it was too soon to celebrate. The target, which had been on the verge of toppling, sprang back with renewed elasticity.
“Too bad! First round, a failure!”
Vivian stared dumbfounded at the swinging target before glaring daggers at the announcer.
“What do you mean, a failure? It was a direct hit.”
“Nope, nope. I distinctly said you have to *knock down* the target.”
“Isn't this a total scam?”
“Haha! A scam? First time at the Winter Festival? Everyone knows the deal with this game. Besides, do you know what collection this is from? You could resell this doll for at least a gold coin later.”
Jocle turned to Ludvans and asked.
“Looks like there’s a spring at the bottom. Think you can do it?”
“Well… I still have nine throws left.”
Ludvans, placing the snowballs in a convenient spot, eyed the target and thought.
‘They’ve set it at an awkward angle. I guess a straight throw is my only option.’
Over the next ten minutes, he threw all nine remaining snowballs.
Ludvans, who had approached the challenge with intense focus, maintained his expressionless face, but beads of sweat formed on his brow, and steam rose from his head.
“A pity. I feel like one more would have done it.”
The challenge was a failure.
He had landed the second and third throws consecutively, but his failure to hit the fourth, fifth, and sixth was his undoing.
Hitting a target from a distance greater than the arena with maximum power was no easy feat, even for a semi-pro.
Renewing his resolve, he landed every snowball from the seventh throw onward with stinging accuracy, but the target still refused to fall.
Shirone gleaned a hint from this.
‘You have to use its elasticity to knock it over. I thought it was strange they installed a spring on the target.’
If you hit the target repeatedly while the momentum of its pendulum motion remains, the elasticity gradually increases. Eventually, it would pass a critical point and, unable to bear the weight, topple over.
Ludvans’ accuracy, hitting seven out of ten, was impressive, but because the force wasn't applied consecutively, he had failed.
“Amy, why don’t you give it a try?”
“Huh? Me?”
Amy looked back at Shirone, surprised.
Truthfully, with her playful nature, she couldn't possibly resist such a fun game. But typically, it was the men who stepped up to show off in front of the women, so she had just been watching.
‘Aha, so that’s the situation, is it?’
She thought she understood Shirone’s intention. The person who needed to show off here and now was her.
‘In that case, there’s no reason to hold back.’
Amy walked up to the announcer and paid 10 silver.
If Ludvans was the representative of student pitchers, then Amy’s pride as a future sniper was on the line.
“I’ll take a shot, too. Here’s 10 silver.”
“Oho, it’s been a while since we had a female challenger! But milady, the guards in the watchtower are not swayed by beauty. Still, I’ll give you one extra snowball for your trouble. Do your best.”
“No, that’s okay. Ten is enough.”
“Haha! What a spirited young lady! Everyone, a round of applause for this courageous lady!”
The crowd erupted in applause as the slender girl, who looked like she could barely throw a snowball to the watchtower, stepped up to the challenge.
Amy licked her lips and held a snowball in her hand. Her pupils turned red as her Self-Image Memory recorded her current state.
“Heave-ho.”
With a dainty motion, she swung her arm, but the snowball fell short, not even making it halfway, like a dud.
A wave of good-natured laughter rippled through the onlookers.
Shirone, however, watched with bated breath. Amy’s true skill was about to be revealed.
Unlike her first throw, Amy now took a proper stance, staring intently at the target.
The information from her Self-Image Memory corrected the error, allowing her brain to perceive the precise trajectory.
Using Schema's basic build for muscle reinforcement, she gripped the snowball tightly, widened her stance, and swung her arm in a wide arc.
The snowball flew at a speed comparable to Ludvans’ throw and struck the target, causing the onlookers’ eyes to widen in surprise.
Amy stored the state of the second throw in her Red Eyes. Then, she mechanically threw the third, fourth, and fifth snowballs.
With each hit, the target’s swaying grew wider, until finally, on the eighth throw, it couldn’t withstand the force and toppled over with a crash.
“Wooooah! She did it! The girl knocked it over!”
“Miss, are you an athlete or something? That was amazing!”
Amy looked up at the ceiling, exhaling in relief.
Now that she’d tried it herself, she realized it was a genuinely difficult game. Even a Schema user would struggle if they hadn't trained their sensory systems.
Of course, a master of Schema could knock the target over in one shot with the force of a cannonball, but such a person wouldn't stoop to making a scene at a festival just to win a doll.
The announcer gladly handed the prize to the successful challenger.
Taking the Ice Queen doll, Amy thanked the people who had cheered for her and held it up like a trophy.
Vivian gazed at the Ice Queen doll, which had a wide, crescent-moon smile, with a look of disappointment.
“Aww, I’m so jealous. I wanted that one.”
Shirone and Amy, completely forgetting Jocle’s group was even there, walked away in high spirits.
Ludvans spoke.
“…That’s kind of annoying.”
Jocle felt the same way.
“Hmph, she’s been selfish since she was a kid. A personality like that is why she failed the graduation exam. I heard she got beaten up by a group. That’s why the only people she can hang out with are commoners.”
Shirone and Amy didn’t remember Jocle’s group until they had already reached the first floor.
They had no desire to go back. It wasn’t as if they had approached them with good intentions from the start.
Amy hugged the Ice Queen doll to her chest, rubbing her cheek against it and enjoying its soft texture.
“Hee hee! It’s so cute.”
Shirone felt a warm glow just watching her.
Contrary to her outward personality, she loved cute dolls. Didn’t she have countless teddy bears in her room?
‘I’m glad she has normal taste.’
He genuinely thought so.
After all, only someone with a twisted sense of humor would collect something like Uorin’s El-Krauch porcelain dolls.
“I won it for 20 silver, so even assuming I only get 1 gold for it, that’s a profit of 80 silver.”
“Haha! That’s just like you to think that way. But aren’t you past the point of counting coins? The richest person in the magic academy, I mean.”
“The richest person? Me?”
Amy pointed at Shirone’s coat.
“Armand. They said its black market value alone is over two billion gold, right? That means it would go for at least double that at an auction. In other words, you’re carrying the entire value of our school on your hip right now.”
The realization finally dawned on Shirone, and he blinked.
The amount was so far beyond common sense that he hadn't even dared to consider the sword's value.
The thought that he was walking through a crowd of people with an S-class object worth over four billion gold suddenly made his side, where the sword hung, feel sore.
‘What if someone tries to steal it? No, wait, we share a consciousness, so it can’t be stolen.’
Amy carefully placed the Ice Queen doll in her bag. Shirone, who had been watching, pointed outside and said.
“It’s getting hot from the games. Let’s go outside and cool off.”
“Yeah. I could use some fresh air, too. Want to go skating? I heard the ice here is really good.”
Shirone nodded readily.
It brought back memories of happily playing on a frozen lake with skates his father had made for him as a child.
“Alright! Then let’s head to the skating rink!”
The Philosophy of a Combat Mage (1)
The skating rink was filled with couples.
Shirone and Amy joined the flow of skaters circling the outer edge of the rink.
A crisp, cold winter wind blew against them.
As she glided on the ice, following the person in front of her, Amy was able to forget the worries of her reality, if only for a moment.
But her good mood vanished the moment she saw Jocle’s group enter the rink.
Instead of joining the flow, they were showing off skating tricks in the center of the rink.
It wasn't against the rules, but perhaps because she already disliked them, Amy found even that displeasing.
“What? Did they follow us all the way here?”
“They probably just came to skate. Don’t worry about them.”
Amy didn’t want to get involved with Jocle’s group.
Seeing them enjoying their leisure time after confidently passing their graduation exams felt like picking at the scab of her own failure.
“Forget it. Let’s just be the ones to leave. I’ve cooled down enough, and I want to see other places anyway.”
“Should we? Alright.”
Shirone and Amy awkwardly shuffled on their skates toward the exit.
“Hey! Leaving already?”
Shirone turned to see Jocle skating toward them at full speed, waving his arms.
He hastily pulled Amy aside as Jocle swerved and came to a sharp stop. The skate blades cut into the ice, sending a spray of ice powder flying. As the cold particles hit his face, Shirone’s brow furrowed.
“What do you think you’re doing? Spraying that in people’s faces.”
“Haha! Why get so worked up over something like that? You’re more uptight than I heard. It was just a joke.”
“So why are you playing jokes on us?”
Amy pushed past Shirone and stepped forward.
“What’s the reason you keep following us? If you have something to say, say it straight. Don’t act like a childish brat.”
“It’s been a while since we’ve seen each other. This is fate, so let’s have some fun. We still have some unfinished business to take care of, you know.”
“Unfinished? What unfinished business?”
The only thing that came to mind when she thought of Jocle was that he had given up on the competition at a prestigious academy and transferred to another school as if fleeing.
‘Huh? Don’t tell me…?’
A faint scene flickered in Amy’s mind.
Before he transferred, Jocle had confessed his love to her.
At the time, it was a common occurrence. It was such a trivial event that it was a wonder she even remembered it.
But today, of all days, she was conscious of Shirone’s gaze.
No woman in the world would take the word ‘date’ as just a joke, even if it was said jokingly.
Amy was a woman, and she was no idiot.
When a man and a woman went on a three-day, two-night trip alone, she was well aware that anything could happen, and she had followed Shirone with that understanding.
She didn’t want to make Shirone feel awkward over some ridiculous past incident.
Simply being confessed to wouldn't have bothered him, but having the person in question standing right in front of them was another matter entirely.
“Forget it. I don’t want to talk to you. Shirone, let’s go somewhere else. We don’t need to hang out with people like this.”
As Amy tried to leave, Jocle walked past Shirone as if ignoring him and approached her.
“Wait a minute. Let’s finish what we were talking about…”
Jocle stopped speaking and turned his head. Shirone was gripping his shoulder, a scowl on his face.
“She said she’s not interested.”
“You, are you going to let go of me? We may go to different schools, but I’m still your senior. A certified mage.”
“That’s that, and this is this.”
Jocle was dumbfounded by Shirone’s insolence.
“A lowly commoner like you is getting a big head because everyone’s fawning over you. You know what? Amy and I have known each other since we were thirteen. This is none of your business.”
“What does it matter when you met? If we’re counting, we met when we were twelve. She said she’s not interested, so please stop bothering her and leave.”
“What? You met when you were twelve?”
Jocle was flabbergasted by Shirone’s lie.
Thanks to having memorized the academic journals, he knew about Shirone’s past.
How could he, who had only been enrolled in the magic academy for a year, have possibly met Amy at the age of twelve?
Moreover, the son of a mountain man, not even a noble.
“You’re a surprisingly shameless one. You think a lie like that will work? Do you know what happens in this world when a senior takes a disliking to you? Especially a nobody like you with no one to back you up. You’ll just be kicked out.”
“I have no desire to be part of a world where seniors resort to petty threats.”
“You little bastard!”
Faced with Shirone, who retorted without backing down an inch, Jocle lost his reason and raised his fist.
But just as he was about to swing, a snowball flew from somewhere and struck the back of his head with a thud.