Becky Is Better Than You.
Becky Is Better Than You.
The phrasing was so bizarre I debated whether to answer at all.
In the end, I decided to answer. Right now, I needed to teach something and earn money.
I shaped mana into letters and wrote in the blank space at the bottom of the page. The message would be sent to the other party.
[ ▷ Anything I know. ]
[ ▶ Price? ]
[ ▷ Depends on what I'm teaching. ]
[ ▶ What's your experience? 0ㅅ0 ]
What was 0ㅅ0? I scrutinized it from every angle, but couldn't make sense of it.
At the very least, it wasn't a language I knew, and a magical examination confirmed it wasn't a formula either.
In the end, I decided to ignore the little messages tacked onto the ends of sentences. They didn't seem to impede communication.
At any rate, experience. I briefly considered how to present myself to others on the Teaching Auction.
The deliberation didn't last long.
The Teaching Auction is an anonymous process, so introducing myself from my old world should be fine.
[ ▷ Bachelor's, Master's, Doctorate, Professor. Done most of it. ]
[ ▶ Oh rly...? ]
After that message, no reply came. I wondered if they were backing off.
[ ▶ Think you could solve this one? ㅎㅅㅎ ]
Then a complex formula appeared on the page.
A formula tangled like a knot of thread, circuits forming a labyrinth, countless curves that seemed to mock the observer....
I knew this formula all too well.
It was the one Trixie had set, the one written on the Agora Board the day I first met Becky.
Teaching the answer and the solution would be incredibly easy, but there was something I needed to say first.
[ ▷ You're requesting instruction? ]
[ ▶ Oh yes. I'll give you 10 gold coins. ]
They'd offered 10 gold coins, but it looked like a test of my skills.
I called over Becky, who was sitting next to me.
"Becky."
"Hm?"
"How much do you spend on food in a month?"
Becky's eyes went round.
"Food? My food all of a sudden? Why? Do I look fat?"
"Answer."
As if I'd asked her something deeply troubling, Becky scratched her cheek and parted her lips.
"I spend a lot, I guess.... About 1 gold coin a month...?"
I nodded. Ten gold coins wasn't bad business.
It meant the other party could afford to drop ten gold coins on a test. A wealthy client was good news for me as well.
[ * You have received 10 gold coins. ]
The other party had just paid the ten gold coins. I could redeem them later at the academy bank.
I gave them the solution and the answer: from the fact that it wasn't difficult once you found the vertex, to the method for finding it. It wasn't a particularly kind explanation, but it sufficed.
[ ▶ Oh, I see. Works when you do it that way. ]
[ ▷ Nothing else you'd like to learn? ]
By this point, I had sufficiently proven my ability.
I was calmly waiting for the next problem when a message came back that completely upended my expectations.
[ ▶ From the sound of it, the person who made this seems like a genius. ]
[ ▶ How did they think of drawing a picture with a formula? ㅎㅅㅎ ]
I debated closing the Trivia, then decided to treat it as one more lesson and wrote back.
[ ▷ The idea is good, but the construction is shoddy. ]
[ ▶ Don't get cocky. ]
"......?"
The words 'Don't get cocky,' spelled out clearly, were promptly erased.
[ Deleted message. ]
[ ▶ Then can you solve this one too? ]
This time a different formula was transmitted through the Trivia.
It was an all-too-familiar problem, one I had set myself, the one now displayed prominently on the Agora Board.
It was around then.
"Hey, Plan. What've you been staring at since earlier?"
Suddenly, Becky thrust her face toward me. I discreetly closed the Trivia.
"...Is it a girlfriend?"
"No."
"I didn't mean to look. But her tone."
"Don't make a fuss."
Just then, Professor Violet appeared in the center of the arena with a male professor.
Violet was dressed as Violet always was. A voluminous robe and a massive conical hat. Yet the elegant curves not even the robe could conceal were genuinely alluring.
Wearing her signature expression of pure discontent, she opened her mouth.
"I'll begin the lecture."
◈
The mock battles were simple in execution.
Whether you named someone, were named, or were drawn at random, once your opponent was set, it was all about deploying magic and defeating them.
Because Violet had cast support magic on the students that would forcibly return them to the stands if they took damage above a certain level, the students could go all-out to defeat their opponent.
However, since this was a mock battle ahead of the exploration assignment, Violet instructed them to use scrolls.
Scrolls vary wildly in price based on their performance.
It could have been an unfair format where financial power decided victory, but Violet was not that thoughtless a professor.
She had a fairness measure: she personally distributed three random scrolls of the same grade to each student.
Right now, Becky and Hailey's mock battle was underway.
'She's going to lose.'
It was certain. Becky was going to lose.
Becky's proficiency with the ice element was commendable. However, Becky was currently not using her scrolls at all.
Trying to solve every situation with only the ice element wasn't romanticism. It was brittle stubbornness and self-righteousness.
...But it didn't seem to be solely a problem of scroll usage. I didn't know why, but Becky couldn't focus on the match at all.
I could feel from here that her head was stuffed full of other worries. A deeply regrettable attitude for a mage.
I turned my attention to Hailey.
'Does she at least have the basics?'
By alternating between scrolls and her own magic, Hailey was offsetting the weaknesses of each.
But she wasn't without openings. If you looked, there were plenty.
Even exploiting just one would let you win. But Becky, having already lost the advantage, lacked the capacity to exploit them.
The training ground was a vast sparring arena ringed by circular spectator stands.
"Ack, yowch!"
With a sharp cry, Becky tumbled across the ground in a spectacular cloud of dust.
"Stop. That's enough. Hailey wins."
As expected, Hailey claimed victory. There was no comeback.
When Violet called the match over, Hailey approached Becky and extended her hand. Her gentle smile was like sunlight.
"You're not hurt? Sorry if I was too rough."
"Ah, no."
Becky, covered in dust, took Hailey's impeccably clean hand and stood up.
Hailey, glowing gold in the sunlight, and Becky, caked in dirt. The contrast was especially stark.
"Neither of you seriously hurt?"
At Violet's question, Hailey and Becky both nodded. The professor nodded as well.
"Then return to your seats. Let's proceed with the next match."
"Yes, Professor."
Smiling brightly, Hailey walked toward the spectator stands first, and Becky plodded after her, listless.
"I'll draw the next student."
Violet flicked a finger, and the frog spat out a name card with a pop. The name was called.
"Aria Fontaine."
Aria swept back her pink hair as she entered the arena. Violet parted her lips.
"If you have an opponent you'd like to name, do so. If not, we'll draw one."
"Please make it Plan."
Without a moment's hesitation, Aria named me. Violet nodded as if she understood.
The simple fact that Aria had named me was juicy gossip for others. Other students began murmuring loudly.
"Plan should've just dropped out after losing that bet. Then he wouldn't have to get beaten up today."
"Hey, keep it down. Everyone can hear you."
"So what if they can? Let 'em hear."
Having expected all of this, I walked calmly between them. There was no reason to care.
"Hey, um, Plan."
At that moment, someone walking toward me from the opposite direction called my name. It was Becky.
Becky stood in front of me, fidgeting, then spoke with difficulty.
"I lost. You win, at least."
"......"
Becky had become a complete lump of dirt.
I didn't pity or sympathize with her. However, the acrid smell of dust bothered me so much that I unconsciously furrowed my brow.
Becky began sniffing at her sleeve.
"Sorry, does my perfume smell weird?"
Instead of answering, I used wind magic and telekinesis to dust off her exterior. Watching that shabby sight was suffocating me.
The dirt evenly caked on her uniform and hair gathered into a sphere under my telekinesis.
By the time Becky was clean, the clump of dust was nearly the size of a ping-pong ball.
"Plan~"
Suddenly, a different voice called me. Golden hair and a soft smile.
It was Hailey. Even having just finished a mock battle with Becky, she was pristine, without a speck of dust.
"You don't seem to have time to be tidying up girls. Isn't your own match more urgent?"
"Oh, sorry. I stopped you for nothing."
Becky muttered quietly and quickly brushed past me. But Hailey still had something to say.
"Right. But Plan, why do you always only hang around with Becky?"
I ignored her and took a step. It wasn't worth answering.
"Oh my, did you take a liking to Becky? How long has she been trailing after you?"
But people of this sort were engineered to get cocky if you didn't answer.
"A pity. I went and beat Becky. You're not holding a grudge over that?"
What would I need to say to shut that mouth? After a brief moment of thought, I flicked a finger.
"Hwack?!"
The clump of dust, gathered like a ping-pong ball, exploded—poof—and covered Hailey. The watching students gaped.
After checking herself, Hailey cried out in furious disbelief.
"You, you, you...! What do you think you're doing?"
I cleanly ignored her question and merely added one calm remark.
"Becky's better than you."
Becky gave good directions, after all. And handled cleanup well.
Shock filled Hailey's expression.
The surroundings fell silent, as if time had stopped. I walked toward the arena.
Aria's gaze, waiting for the match, was filled with hostility. She was staring at me as if she wanted to chew me up alive.
But too bad for her.
I was in a foul mood myself. This time, I had no intention of going easy on her.