The Lake Cannot Become the Sea
WAAAAAAAH—!
An attack had landed on White.
While the crowd was utterly swept up in Mayrin's performance, chanting her name over and over, a calm silence hung over the VIP seats.
The headmistress of Moiran and Jane, Vice Headmistress of Kizen. With their hands clasped behind their backs, the two women watched the students' duel in silence.
"Impressive. To see through White and push him that far."
Rustle—
The headmistress of Moiran spread open the documents in her hand.
"So that child is Kizen's Vice President this year."
Jane nodded and looked at the headmistress.
There was little trace left of the upright, composed woman from the photograph hanging at the school entrance, taken back when she was a rookie professor. Wrinkles had deepened, and her hair had turned white as frost from years of toil since taking the headmistress's post.
"An excellent student."
Having said that, Jane added one more remark.
"And a hardworking one."
Professor! Professor! This matter, you see—!
Since becoming Vice President, the girl had run the student-council supervisor ragged.
In front of her peers she had a habit of flaunting her authority — I'm the Vice President! — but that was closer to an unconscious reflex to feed her ego than anything else.
The truth was that behind the scenes, she threw herself into student council work harder than anyone, grinding herself down in her effort to prove worthy of the seat.
"My, my."
The headmistress, skimming Mayrin's profile, spoke with something like regret.
"She's a child with a story. Those who are pushed aside in a war of succession always carry their own grievances."
Jane neither agreed nor disagreed, her eyes fixed forward. The headmistress continued.
"Children like that need their hunger for recognition satisfied. No matter how hard adults drill into them that 'ranking' isn't everything in life, they simply won't understand."
The headmistress's gaze shifted, settling on Mayrin — hands braced on her knees, gasping for breath as if on the verge of collapse.
"Very interesting. It seems Mayrin has found something else she wants to achieve, apart from her own ambition."
"……"
Mayrin had, without question, harbored a bitter inferiority complex toward Serne.
From her entrance into Kizen onward, everything in her life had been a means of surpassing that girl.
But watching her as Class A's supervising professor, Jane had seen those edges worn down through her life with the members of Squad 7, and at the end of her first year, in the evaluation duel against Serne, she had shown herself overcoming that inferiority to a considerable degree.
And through this term of student council life, it seemed Mayrin had opened her eyes to a new path — one beyond merely reclaiming the successor's seat from Serne.
"It is the students who are missing something, you see, who have the potential to grow larger than anyone else."
The headmistress of Moiran set down her papers and went on.
"Children raised flawlessly, lacking nothing, will remain steady and dependable — but they can never become irreplaceable. It is the rough ore buried in the dirt, dirty and unseemly, that reveals its true, world-stunning worth only after it has been cut, smelted, and polished."
Jane changed the subject without a word of reply.
"Regarding White's transfer."
"Yes."
"I heard the student opposition was fierce. You led Moiran successfully for the past five years on the students' absolute support — why would you make such a risky move?"
The headmistress tore her eyes from the arena for a moment, lifted her head, and gazed out over the vast lake of Moiran.
"No matter how one grinds one's bones and strives, a 'lake' can never become a 'sea.'"
With those words, the headmistress turned back to Jane with an enigmatic smile.
"The moment a person feels an utterly insurmountable wall, they are bound to take a reckless gamble."
"……"
Jane thought that today, somehow, the wrinkles carved around the headmistress's smile looked deeper than ever.
Just then, the headmistress pointed at the documents lying before Jane.
"I prepared White's profile as well, sensing Kizen's concern. Have you read it?"
"I have."
White was already a student thoroughly vetted by Moiran itself.
Kizen, too, poured extreme scrutiny into the nine transfer students arriving from the Three Great Necromancer Schools every year. At the insistence of the elders, Kizen headquarters had sent people of their own to investigate White, and again they had found nothing amiss.
Could a first-year truly topple the Student Council President of the third years? As he stood now, White was already something close to a living weapon.
Jane shifted only her eyes toward the headmistress of Moiran.
What exactly are you and the Shahed Kingdom thinking?
Then it happened.
FWAAAAAASH!
Inside Mayrin's ice, a dazzling pure-white light was kindling to life. The crowd stirred with a low murmur, and the exhausted Mayrin stumbled backward in alarm.
"Just as the reports said."
Jane folded her arms, recalling what she had read in White's file.
"What a monstrous power."
Simon and Camibarez also jolted upright in the stands, rising onto their toes.
From within Mayrin's ice, a blinding white light was bursting forth — like a bird cracking through its shell.
"This is……"
Camibarez's watching pupils trembled.
"I-is that divine power?"
"No. It's different."
Simon, who could actually wield a priest's power, saw through it instantly.
"That is jet-black, without a doubt."
Jet-black — white as driven snow.
Shocked cries erupted from the stands as well.
"That's sinister! An ill omen!"
"White jet-black?!"
"Priests can go back to the Holy Federation!"
BOOOOOO!
Jeers and invective poured in from every direction, but White merely stared back at Mayrin, utterly composed.
Across the arena, Mayrin wiped her brow with a strained smile.
So that's what he was saving my absorbed jet-black for.
Until now, White had only defended.
But from this moment, the real attacks would come. As White swept his arm through the air, a white orb came hurtling at her.
<Ice Road>
Shrrrrrk!
Mayrin's physical abilities were frail and her reflexes sluggish — but she had always covered for it with magic.
She conjured ice beneath her soles and retreated, and the white orb dropped onto the exact spot she had occupied a heartbeat before.
WHUMP!
The otherworldly appearance aside, even the sound it made was strange. Rather than exploding, the orb ground and gnawed at the earth like something shoving its way through soil, burrowing deeper and deeper.
In the blink of an eye it had carved out a colossal pit, and the moment the white power spent itself, it snuffed out like a dying lamp. That was all.
If I get caught under even one of those—
A searing crimson flame bloomed across Mayrin's right hand.
—it's over for me!
FWOOSH!
As she flung her flame of pure mana, White batted it aside with a swing of his white orb — then hurled the orb straight back at her.
"Ghk!"
Fast. She scrambled out of the way on Ice Road, but her heart lurched at the speed.
If he had thrown it while predicting her line of retreat, it would have struck her without fail.
I have to end this NOW!
Mayrin spread both palms wide. A blue magic circle bloomed in one hand, a black one in the other. Symbols and diagrams rapidly filled both circles as they raced toward completion.
KIIIIING—!
White raised another white orb in his palm and began charging forward, the orb held before him like a shield.
KWA-KWA-KWA-KWA-KWA-BOOM!
Massive scars tore across the arena floor.
It was a ferocious sight, but Mayrin drew her concentration tighter without a flicker of wavering.
I am the Vice President of Kizen!
She thrust out her right arm first.
Against another school, I absolutely, absolutely cannot lose!
The pure magic circle on her right arm spun up a raging flame, and over it — like snapping a lid on a pot — a jet-black flame-shell of dark energy sealed it in.
Two kinds of fire burned in unison, fusing into a single enormous sphere of flame.
<Mayrin Original — Blaze Egg>
With her completed flame sphere held before her as well, Mayrin charged head-on at White as he dragged his white orb toward her.
The duel reached its crescendo.
Every spectator in the stands surged to their feet. Camibarez shivered and whispered you've got this over and over, while Simon clenched his jaw.
A head-on clash with White is reckless!
Just as the distance between the two fighters shrank — Mayrin made a gesture with her hand.
<Wall of Ice>
SHRRRRRRK!
A wall of ice erupted between the two charging fighters in an instant. White's expression didn't change; he simply kept coming.
KRA-KOOM!
The instant White blasted through the ice wall with his white orb, Mayrin rode Ice Road around the wall's flank.
"HAAAAAAH!"
She swung the flame sphere clutched in her fist with all her might. White, as if he had anticipated it, pivoted his hips and swung his white orb toward her.
KWAAAAAAANG!
Flame sphere and white orb collided in an enormous explosion.
Her flame sphere detonated — but White's white orb, though diminished in size, still held its form.
As he swept his arm through the drifting smoke—
GOTCHA!
Mayrin burst through the smoke and seized White's right arm. The white orb seared her palm, slashing her barrier gauge down sharply, but she paid it no mind.
Wrenching him with her whole body's strength, she threw him down onto the floor, and White clambered over her in a graceless sprawl.
"!"
White twisted to look behind him. Her original spell, still hovering in the air, was descending onto his back.
The earlier technique had been a simple jet-black flame sphere. Blaze Egg was the one she had hurled skyward moments earlier on a time delay.
"I WIN!"
Mayrin flashed a triumphant grin as the hovering sphere plunged down and detonated against White's back.
KWAAAAAAAAAANG!
Flames swallowed the pair as the blast roared out.
"Mayrin!!"
Camibarez screamed her name in anguish. Simon, on the other hand, was wearing a rather dumbfounded smile.
…S-she's terrifying.
She handled everything cleanly — her studies, her work, her duels — but her obsession with winning was on a truly fearsome level.
Through the black smoke, everyone's eyes turned naturally toward the screen displaying the barrier gauges.
"Match over!"
The referee blew his whistle and thrust his arm into the air.
"The winner is—"
The flames cleared, revealing Mayrin sprawled on the floor with a stricken expression.
And there was White, her left arm pinned behind her back, his right hand gripping her throat.
"White of Moiran!"
The sequence of events had been as follows.
The moment Mayrin's Blaze Egg dropped onto White's back, White extended not his captured right hand but his left, casting his jet-black absorption.
He took damage only from the pure-mana flame within the Blaze Egg.
And with the right hand that held her, he drank in Mayrin's barrier.
The barriers woven into the protective suits the students wore were themselves made of jet-black. White could drain Mayrin's barrier gauge to zero by nothing more than touch.
For Mayrin — who had planned and prepared even for the exchange after next — it was a bolt from the blue.
Still, she was incredible.
Simon believed she had given more than her absolute best.
Her mistake lay in not knowing two things: that White could absorb jet-black with his left hand as well, and that he could swallow barriers too.
Even so, to have exploited an opponent she knew nothing about to this degree — to have pushed White this hard — was genuinely remarkable.
"Well fought, Kizen!"
"Great match!"
The spectators rose and gave their applause, and the first standing ovation of the day erupted from all sides — but Simon couldn't stop worrying about Mayrin.
Knowing her temper, she's going to be fuming.
Just then, Mayrin, having shed her protective suit, was trudging wearily across the arena. She smiled sheepishly and waved at Simon and Camibarez.
"Sorry, I lost."
"That was the best match of the whole tour, Mayrin! You were amazing!"
Camibarez seized her arm and tried to lift the mood. Simon shot her a careful sidelong glance and offered his own words of encouragement, but Mayrin just scoffed.
"Hey! You don't have to force the sympathy, you know?"
She smacked Simon on the back as she passed. Simon rubbed his stinging spine and asked, as casually as he could manage,
"……You're not disappointed?"
"Not even a little?"
She scooped up the bag she'd left by the waiting bench and said it as if it were obvious.
"Fighting him, it was clear — I was never going to beat him in the first place. So there's no regret, no frustration, none of it~ Let's head back to Kizen."
"Yes, ma'am, Mayrin!"
Mayrin started off, saying she'd stop by the restroom first. But for all her breezy words, the fist clenched tight at her side was visible beyond the cuff of her uniform sleeve.
"Mayrin."
She stopped dead in her tracks.
When she glanced back over her shoulder, Simon was smiling warmly.
"I'm honestly so glad you became our Vice President."
"……"
Her coolly composed expression wavered violently for an instant, and ripples spread across her lake-blue eyes.
"……I-I don't know! Dummy!"
She let out a sniffle and bolted. Simon and Camibarez exchanged a look and smiled quietly.
Jane turned to face the group.
"Is everyone ready?"
"Yes, ma'am!!"
With the Moiran transfer evaluation concluded, all nine transfer students had assembled.
Beside Jane stood Simon, Mayrin, and Camibarez, their student council armbands on their sleeves.
"Now then — we depart for Kizen."
She strode toward the teleportation circle, and the student council members followed.
Except for White, who stared blankly into the empty air with a dazed look in his eyes, the other eight students' gazes sparkled.
Every one of them had fought through competition of several hundred to one. A year and more of sweat and struggle — it had all been for this moment.
Benz broke into a wide grin and shouted,
"Let's go! To Kizen!"