How About the Loser Gets Down and Apologizes?
How About the Loser Gets Down and Apologizes?
"Plan?"
The male student called Louis rifled through his memory for a moment.
Even to another man, that swept-back silver hair was strikingly alluring.
"Oh, right."
He'd placed me. He flashed an amiable smile and extended a hand.
"I've heard a lot about you from Hailey. I'm impressed."
I don't have anything against physical contact, but I accepted the handshake without much thought. The reason was simple: his smile held a surprising lack of malice.
I finished the handshake and was about to leave immediately when Hailey threw out a remark.
"What happened to that thing you were always carrying around?"
Was there such a thing? Hailey supplied the answer herself.
"Your basic magic textbook."
"I threw it out."
At that, Hailey burst into a laugh, a little *pfft*. The way she covered her mouth with her hand wasn't a great look.
"So you gave up after all? That's not like you, Plan~ You always used to be so persistent."
I turned my back without hesitation.
I had neither the reason nor the leisure to respond to every little jab. A mage explains and proves himself through magic.
"Ah, Plan! I knew you'd be here!"
There was one more student looking for me.
From the shop entrance, Becky, who had loudly shouted my name, came pattering over at a run.
"Haah... I figured you'd be here. Glad I found you."
Becky caught her breath as she reached me, wiping the sweat from her forehead with her sleeve.
"What is it."
"Ah, well, that thing you mentioned earlier... Oh? You were with people? Sorry."
Fluster flickered in Becky's eyes as she spoke, still panting.
She glanced once at Louis, then at Hailey, and immediately started sniffing at her own sleeve.
"Never mind. What is it."
"Ah, right. About that rotation rate you taught me earlier. I had a few things to say about it..."
But then Hailey cut in abruptly.
"Taught you?"
Hailey's brow furrowed as if the concept was hard to grasp. She directed the question at Becky.
"Who taught whom?"
"Uh, huh? Plan did. To me."
"Plan taught someone else magic?"
Hailey's eyes went round as if she'd heard something preposterous. Then her eyes narrowed as she looked Becky up and down.
"Who are you?"
Hailey asked me, but Becky quickly opened her mouth.
"Me, I'm Becky."
"I'm Hailey Lumian. Your family name?"
"Just... Becky."
Deflated, Becky quietly averted her eyes.
Hailey's scrutinizing gaze on Becky hadn't stopped. Then she spotted the Trivia clutched in Becky's hand.
"Oh my, that's the same Trivia as Plan's."
"The same as Plan's...? My Trivia is?"
Becky's gaze shifted to my hand.
"Ah... so it is."
"You didn't know? That's odd. Why would Plan deliberately choose that one."
"Like I'd know."
Looking troubled, Becky fiddled with her Trivia. Hailey openly sneered at her.
"You'd better know, shouldn't you? Why else would Florian buy the same one as you. It's not a hard story to figure out."
Hailey looked back and forth between me and Becky, then let out a short, derisive laugh, as if she'd just realized something.
"Well, birds of a feather flock together. You two have fun with that."
With those parting words, Hailey vanished with Louis.
Flustered, Becky scratched her head for a moment and muttered to herself. Then, as if suddenly remembering the important thing, she whipped her head around to face me.
"Right. Plan! About that rotation rate..."
"Figure it out."
"Hey, wait...!"
I left Becky behind. I needed some time alone.
◈
Time flowed like running water, but Plan still had no intention of going home.
'Having a place to return to isn't always a good thing.'
Plan recalled Scarlett, the female knight staying at the mansion, and furrowed his brow.
He had not the slightest intention of staying in a space that sought to bind him. Plan abandoned the mansion's soft bed and willingly chose a cold park bench.
History of Magic, The Birth of Mana. They made adequate pillows.
He could have used magic to improve his surroundings, but he didn't bother. He needed to conserve his magic power until the test.
In the first place, starvation and cold were things he was long accustomed to. He wasn't the type to buckle under such trivial factors — in his previous world, that was exactly what had earned him the title of genius.
The park, draped in nothing but darkness, was bleak — but his immediate surroundings were not. His rough sleeping looked like some kind of performance art. Even the moonlight seemed to enjoy tracing the angular lines of his face as it slid downward.
He was just about to catch some quality sleep.
"!"
A suspicious presence jolted his senses. Plan twisted his body on instinct.
"Eep?!"
A frail little shriek followed. Plan raised his head and examined the source of the presence.
A girl had apparently landed hard on her rear and was rubbing her backside.
So she'd been about to sit right on top of me. Plan was dumbfounded. No matter how late the hour, the moonlight was bright. Anyone with a functioning mind couldn't possibly have missed seeing him.
"Whaaat~ is that a person? That's so weird~ I couldn't feel your presence at all..."
The reek of alcohol wafting from the woman, her staggering gait, her unfocused eyes.
The moment he registered those signs, Plan understood she was in no condition for rational thought.
"Why can't I feel your presence? Are you a master? Like someone who's reached the realm where they can hide their presence completely?!"
Plan shook his head quietly. 'Master' was a word that woefully underestimated him.
He clicked his tongue and moved to relocate his sleeping spot, but something kept trailing after him. It was the thoroughly intoxicated girl.
Two or three more bench changes made no difference. Out of patience, Plan spoke.
"Why on earth are you doing this. Does a vagrant owe you some business?"
The girl, however, stretched out her index finger and pointed straight at the History of Magic in Plan's hand.
"...That's the History of Magic! Aren't you a mage?!"
Only then did Plan take a closer look at her.
Sky-blue hair that fell just past her shoulders, bangs swept at an angle, deep indigo eyes.
Uncommonly refined for a drunkard. Even he, sensitive to beauty as he was, found her appearance striking.
She thrust her index finger closer toward Plan.
"I was right~! You are a mage! That's a Märchen Academy library book!"
"And what of it."
"The Agora Boooooard!"
She shrieked at the top of her lungs. For the first time in a long while, Plan felt like hitting someone.
"The Agora Board! The Agora Board I'm talking about! You know about the Agora Board, don't youuu!"
She flopped down onto the ground. Her white skirt was instantly smeared with dust and dirt. The angle was unseemly, on the verge of exposing her undergarments, so Plan sighed and turned his head away.
"...What's the problem."
"They solved it... Someone solved my problem..."
Plan felt a flicker of genuine admiration. So this drunkard was the one who'd posted the Agora Board challenge.
Meanwhile, she continued, tears welling in her eyes.
"Not only did they solve it, they completely toyed with me! They made fun of me! How could anyone do that? Do they know who I am!"
"......"
"I'm not letting this go. I'm absolutely not letting this go, you hear me! Hwaaang..."
Leaving the sobbing girl behind, Plan quietly stepped away.
Sleeping in this park was out of the question.
◈
The test period arrived.
Plan, having found another park and caught a fitful nap, took his seat in the broad, fan-shaped lecture hall without being late.
He was sleepy but held back his yawns. Exhaustion was no excuse. Opening your mouth wide to yawn was far too undignified — that was his view.
But while sleepiness was his sole concern, every other student in the lecture hall was ablaze with a shared topic.
"Did you see the Agora Board?"
"Of course I did!"
Agora Board, Agora Board, Agora Board...
"They say Trixie was the one who posted it. Once I heard that, it all made sense. In hindsight, how did none of us guess it was Trixie?"
"Did you see what's written on the Agora Board right now? It's insane."
Agora Board here, Agora Board there. Plan was just about to succumb to boredom.
"Hey! Plan!"
Someone jabbed him in the side. He turned his head to find Becky, her red eyes wide open.
"Figure out the rotation rate yourself."
"No! Not about the rotation rate! Look at this!"
Becky plopped down right beside him and opened her Trivia.
There were various boards, but Becky navigated to the hot topic board. She pointed her index finger at the top post, which was blazing away like a live flame.
[ If you're going to provoke someone, why not do it with your name attached. How about this: the loser apologizes facedown on the floor. Trixie von Fritz. ]
That was the entirety of the post. Plan felt nothing in particular.
"What's this."
Becky closed the distance between them even further. She put her mouth near his ear and began whispering very quietly.
"That's what's written on the Agora Board right now. Hey, it's an absolute godsend we solved it anonymously! The one who posted it was Trixie!"
"Who is that."
"Wait, you... you don't know Trixie?"
Becky gave him an incredulous look, then glanced around.
Then, as if she'd found her target, she urgently tapped Plan's arm.
"Hey, hey, Plan. Look over there. That direction."
When Plan turned his head to follow Becky's gaze, a very familiar figure entered his field of vision.
Hair the blue of a captured ocean, bangs swept at an angle, deep indigo eyes.
Plan saw something of himself in that girl. A head held stiffly high as if nothing could ever make it bow, an attitude brimming with self-assurance.
...But no matter how he looked at it, that was the woman from the park last night. The one who'd been staggeringly drunk and throwing a fit.
"No matter what happens, you absolutely cannot get on Trixie's bad side...! We take the secret of solving that Agora Board problem to our graves! Got it?"
"Is she such a big deal."
Plan genuinely couldn't comprehend it. Why shouldn't he get on her bad side? Ah, because she's a raging drunk?
"Are you even listening to yourself! She's from the Fritz family!"
Becky was just starting to work herself up.
"Everyone, attention."
Professor Violet's voice cut through the hall, and the surrounding scenery began to change.
The fan-shaped lecture hall vanished without a trace. A torrential surge of mana erupted upward. The freshmen's vision bleached white all at once.
"!"
When their sight cleared, what revealed itself was a blue meadow.
Green grass blanketing the ground, a blue sky overhead — nothing but those two things. Simply a vast expanse.
Even as the freshmen let out a string of exclamations, Plan calmly identified the spell.
'A large-scale Illusion spell, then.'
Casting an illusion on multiple people at once is no simple feat. He nodded in approval.
In the middle of the meadow sat Violet, positioned at a long rectangular desk. Beside the desk was a cauldron whose purpose was still unclear.
Violet's dark circles had deepened a touch further, as if from exhaustion. She closed her eyes for a long moment, then opened them and spoke.
"I assume everyone is present."
The freshmen answered loudly in unison.
"Know this: from now on, any talk unrelated to the test will be penalized with the sharpness of a blade."
The freshmen answered loudly again, but Violet waved her hand dismissively.
"Don't answer out loud. It hurts my ears. Just understand."
The freshmen clamped their mouths shut. This suited Plan just fine, as he hadn't been answering in the first place.
Violet rose to her feet and continued.
"The test. You'll be taking the test today."
Not many freshmen looked shocked at this. Naturally — thanks to Trivia, everyone had already made their own preparations.
But Violet's speech wasn't over yet.
"...Originally, I would have asked you to demonstrate your most confident spells. But I've seen something that's left me rather displeased."
Violet used telekinesis to levitate a sheet of paper.
"I received a somewhat irritating tip-off, you see. Word has it that Violet's first test is always the same."
The freshmen collectively swallowed a gasp. Whoever this informant was, they all wanted to grab them by the collar.
"Today's test will proceed differently. I will present one spell, and you will attempt to replicate it in the same manner."
The students' jaws dropped. It was, effectively, a bolt from the blue.
"Replicate a spell you present...?"
"How much time do you have to kill to snitch on something like this?"
"...From today onward, I have zero respect for upperclassmen."
A single voiced complaint erupted into a massive wave of murmuring in an instant.
Violet rapped her palm against the desk with a sharp *thwack thwack*.
"What did you hear. Useless chatter will be penalized, I said."
She rested her chin on her hand and went on.
"A total of three professors will be observing. Rest assured, there will be no evaluations based solely on my mood."
As soon as Violet said this, two more chairs materialized next to Audrey.
Two additional professors appeared and took their seats naturally.
One was Audrey, dressed in a sleek suit, and the other was a male professor whose face was full of sour ill-temper.
"The order will be determined by lottery. You're all old enough... I trust there won't be anyone chattering during the test."
Violet snapped her fingers, and the cauldron began to bubble and boil.
Then, with a loud *pop*, it spat out a single frog.
Violet squeezed the frog in her palm, and the creature coughed up a name card.
Violet's expression as she held the card was subtle.
The watching students unconsciously swallowed.
The test itself was important, but in these situations, the identity of the first participant always carried its own weight.
"The first is, Hailey Lumian."