It's My Golem......
It's My Golem......
I swept a calm gaze over Aria. Her face had drained stark white, and her trembling legs flickered across my vision.
Suddenly, she looked like a rain-soaked mouse, and I felt the corner of my mouth lift before I knew it. For a moment, I simply observed her, unhurried, terror-stricken.
"Wh-what did you do? That's my golem..."
Aria muttered as if she could not possibly comprehend it.
A memory surfaced: her insolent attitude when she'd pestered me. I briefly considered what degree of punishment would be appropriate.
The warning ought to be unmistakable.
At the very least, enough that she would never claw her way up again. No—enough that she couldn't.
The simplest, handiest instrument is always fear. At a jerk of my chin, the golem raised its colossal fist toward the sky.
Should that blazing fist plunge into the ground, it would be no different from a meteor strike. Aria, her eyes locked onto the fist, collapsed onto her backside.
As though the scene she foresaw next were too dreadful to bear, she darted her gaze between the golem and me.
"...Wh-what are you doing? Wh-what are you trying to do? You're not, right?"
I simply remained silent. I felt no pity for her, no compassion whatsoever.
She would certainly taste agony commensurate with death.
But Violet had placed supportive magic on the students; there was no chance of her dying.
I checked my remaining mana. A single swing of the golem's fist would nearly drain me dry—but that much was enough.
I steered the golem to bring its fist crashing down on Aria. A screeching groan—like fingernails dragged across a chalkboard—tore from the golem's body.
"H-hey... Hey! W-wait... Wait! Hey, you bastard!"
Aria was practically screaming.
Whether she screamed or not, I pondered how best to budget the remainder of my day after the lecture ended.
"Y-you fucking murderer! You crazy bastard! Somebody save me!"
Once I'd finished my meal, I planned to train.
After that, I would instruct my Trivia client, then read magic tomes in the library and outline, in advance, which papers I might publish in this world....
"Kyaaaaaaah!"
Aria's shriek shattered my reverie. The moment the golem's fist was about to meet her body—
—snap. I flicked my fingers and demolished the golem.
The summoned creature, which had been moving through intricately interlocking parts, reverted to mere lumps of stone and scattered in every direction.
"...Ugh! Hngh!"
Aria still sat with her eyes squeezed shut and both hands clamped over her head. I parted my lips and called her name.
"Aria."
"...?"
Slowly, Aria opened her eyes. I pointed with my chin at the shattered remnants of the golem.
One second. Two. Three.
Horror gradually overtook Aria's face. Leaving her there, I began walking toward the spectator stands.
The bout was already decided. The professors would surely award me the victory.
"You, you... You! This bastard...!"
Aria's voice, raw with fury, reached my ears, but I ignored it cleanly.
Then, abruptly—the presence I sensed from behind felt distinctly wrong.
Fwoosh―!
I unfurled a Rapid Freeze scroll. The surrounding area froze over at once, swallowed by a chill so cold it bit.
Not that there was much around to freeze—save for Aria, frozen solid in a somewhat ridiculous posture.
She had been frozen mid-motion, poised to hurl a vivid red scroll at me.
She must have meant to throw it; the color was completely different from the scrolls Violet had issued.
Hadn't she already used up all three of her scrolls in the first place? The scroll was of unknown provenance.
In her hand, raised uselessly into the air, the scroll had frozen partway, then sloughed loose and activated its effect.
The purple liquid that poured from the paper was vicious.
"...!"
Aria screamed with her eyes. As the purple fluid streamed down over her head, her eyes practically rolled back.
I merely observed.
'A paralytic, then.'
The wider the contact area of the liquid, the fainter her mana grew. At a glance, it was clearly a liquid carrying a paralysis effect.
If she received treatment within the golden time, she'd recover. If not, she'd give up magic. That was all.
I felt neither anger nor pity toward her. It merely struck me that now, at last, she wore an appearance befitting her own caliber.
Meanwhile, Professors Violet and Leonard appeared and caught hold of Aria.
"Student Aria, can you hear me? Student Aria."
The professors hurriedly administered aid, and the barrier that had stained itself black around Aria crumbled completely.
At the same instant, the murmur of the other students seated in the stands came crashing into my ears all at once.
"Aria...! What—what just happened?"
"Did she lose? No way?"
"Losing isn't the problem, I think? What is that?!"
Aria collapsed to the floor, foaming at the mouth.
"Guh... ghk... khk... k-hrk!"
Every vein in her body turned a shade of violet as Aria writhed in agony. While Leonard tapped at Aria's shoulder, Violet unfurled the vivid red scroll and examined it meticulously.
At some point, Violet's eyes went perfectly round.
"!"
Perhaps judging Violet's reaction to be strange, Professor Leonard stepped closer to her. Soon enough, his eyes were identically wide.
Violet pressed a hand to her forehead and let out a deep sigh, then spoke through trembling lips.
"...Aria Fontaine is disqualified—for cheating."
And as though she had nearly forgotten, she added one more line in haste.
"Today's lecture is suspended as of now. No—it's over! Everyone, leave immediately!"
That simple announcement of the result was the truest Rapid Freeze of them all. The vast training hall chilled into silence in an instant.
Quietly, I returned to my original spot.
Unlike when I had entered the arena, not a single whisper accompanied my walk back.
It was Becky who finally spoke to me.
"Hey, P-Pl-Plan. What—what just happened?"
"I won."
"Yeah, but how? And what's wrong with Aria?"
Explaining how I'd won was a chore.
From the interference with Aria's magic to my use of scrolls... going into detail would hurt my mouth and waste my time.
So I decided to answer only why Aria had been dragged out.
"A scroll she brought herself. She reaped what she sowed."
"Huh...?! Then it was cheating! Now that I think about it, the scroll color was different too.... She's getting disciplined, isn't she?"
Most likely.
I turned Violet's words over in my mind, piece by piece. She had said today's lecture ended here, so there was no problem with leaving this place right away.
I had plenty to do.
I needed to train, I needed to read voraciously, and if any time remained, I intended to think about ways to improve Trivia.
I took a step. Becky hurried after me.
"Hey, Plan. Where are you going? No—wait—just walk with me!"
The moment I set foot outside the arena.
As though only then waking from hypnosis, every student began murmuring at once.
◈
The fairness that Märchen Academy's Magic Department provided was limited strictly to 'learning.'
In other words, discrimination could exist freely in the spaces where students lived.
Naturally, the academy did not openly encourage discrimination, but nobles could bring what commoners could not, and so all manner of disparities naturally arose.
One such example was the private building the Fritz family had constructed near the academy dormitories.
Its ballet studio, where amber light poured down like sunshine even at night, was as bright as day. A figure worthy of being called a work of art composedly warmed up.
The pure-white ballet dress and lake-blue hair, as though capturing a lake, were art in themselves. A sculpture wrought by a god breathed and moved.
The piece was titled Trixie von Fritz.
She had been unsettled ever since the mock battle—even though she had seized an overwhelming victory and earned excellent marks.
The reason was none other than Plan.
Because of that commoner male student whose identity she could not fathom, Trixie was suffering an unseasonable confusion.
It was not, of course, that she harbored feelings of fondness; it was simply because of what he had shown her during the mock battle.
Port de bras.
Marking the start of the ballet with the first motion of drawing her hands together, Trixie retraced the scene she had witnessed.
It began with something lodged directly in the front of the barrier, at the spot where Trixie had been looking.
A crack had formed directly before Trixie, seated alone in the corner, and the spiderwebbing fractures soon created a space large enough to peer through.
Thanks to that, she had been able to see, clearly and completely, sights no other student could see. And she remembered them.
Demi-plié, grand plié.
As she moved through the ballet sequences that worked her legs, the scene from that time rose to mind. Trixie found her brow furrowing before she knew it.
'Overwhelming.'
That was the word that surfaced first.
Aria, cornered into a dead end and trembling like a mouse, and Plan, handling the golem as though he himself had summoned it.
'And composure.'
Aria had screamed like a soul seized by hell. In the instant the golem, executing Plan's will, brought its fist down like lightning—
Plan had merely flicked his fingers and shattered the golem to pieces.
Unable to contain her rage, Aria had pulled out a scroll, only to be instantly suppressed by Plan. And with that, the mock battle had ended.
Tendu, dégagé, rond de jambe.... With every sequential movement, Trixie's legs drew elegant arcs. Her thoughts continued.
'How in the world.'
How. In the world.
That was the sum of Trixie's doubts.
Admitted as F-grade, and yet such skill—how? A commoner, and yet such spirit—how? A new student, and yet interference-type spells....
Piqué.
Balancing elegantly on the tip of one foot, Trixie began piecing together the puzzle lingering in her mind.
That uncanny hint of qi sense she had felt from Plan when Aria had failed repeatedly at outputting a mana crystal.
And moreover, he had been training at an advanced difficulty level in the training hall. Thinking back now, that too had hardly been an accidental setting.
Plan—what in the world was he...
"Ah!"
In a split second, her ankle twisted, and Trixie collapsed.
She was bewildered. It was the first mistake she had made in recent memory.
"..."
The shock of having made a mistake was greater than the pain. As she sat collapsed, her gaze fell on Trivia, wrapped in a high-quality ribbon.
"Teaching Auction."
At the same time, the words slipped from her lips before she knew it.
Plan had said he frequented the Teaching Auction, hadn't he?
'...Perhaps.'
What if the reason he had rocketed out of F-grade to become a prodigy of A-grade, the reason he could carry out advanced training—was thanks to the Teaching Auction?
Every puzzle piece fit into place. Trixie used telekinesis to bring Trivia into her grasp.
"Hoo."
She took a deep breath and counted the days.
Only two days remained until the Agora Board match she herself had first proposed. At this rate, defeat was certain.
She would be left groveling before someone whose name she did not even know.
Trixie fidgeted with Trivia, restless. Maybe this 'Teaching Auction' held the answer to the Agora Board problem.
But had her insolent slip of the tongue wounded his pride? No reply had come.
Should she try contacting him once more? But her pride would not permit it just yet....
Then at some moment—
"... ...!"
At last, the cover emitted a blue glow.
A reply had arrived.