An Excellent Teacher

Mia sat on the waiting-room bench and closed her eyes. With her first-round match close at hand, she let the training she had endured with Rai and her seniors unspool through her mind.

It had been hell brutal enough to make the kids who used to torment her look like a joke. Broken bones and a face swollen past recognition were daily fare, and she would black out several times in a single day.

Rai's fists, too fast even to perceive. Philia's sword, which diligently beat every last inch of her. Aslan's strength, which had thrown any notion of holding back to the dogs. Abigail's feet, which kicked without the slightest hesitation the moment she showed a hint of weakness...

And then there was Zeroa's fighting style, which was simply too much to deal with.

Watching him question his own ability, Mia had never been able to understand it. She had gotten lucky thanks to her overwhelming mana and beaten him exactly once, but of all her seniors, she still considered Zeroa the trickiest to face.

It was true his power fell short of the others. But the counters that always came the instant you tried something, as if he were reading every scheme; the obsession with relentlessly targeting whatever an opponent found most uncomfortable; and the variety of combat stances he could match to all of it... If the other seniors simply felt overwhelmingly strong, sparring with Zeroa left a different impression. Gaps seemed to appear, as if you might actually win—until you stepped in close and found those gaps sealed tight. It was frankly infuriating.

No... right now I should only think about myself...

Recalling Rai's order to focus on herself to the point of selfishness, Mia drew a small breath. She didn't know who her opponent would be, but she had to show everything she had honed. From here, her future would change, and the kids who had tormented her for a year wouldn't even be able to meet her eyes.

To make that happen, she needed results ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠in the Martial Arts Tournament. A better future—and proof, for the people who had believed in her and helped her.

Having steeled her resolve, Mia snapped her eyes open to face the reality that held her future.

"Hgyaaaaah!"

The moment her eyes opened, a pair of blue irises filled her vision, and she recoiled in terror.

"Eheheh— hey, hey. Did the meditating go well?"

Diana, who had shoved her face in close enough to kiss, laughed and helped Mia up after she toppled backward. She sat down beside the flushed, panting girl and bumped her shoulder.

"Don't jump so hard. Is my face that scary?"

"No! No! Senior Diana, you're beautiful!"

"Eh— saying it like that actually tanks my confidence."

Diana giggled.

"Senior Diana, why are you here...?"

"Hm? I came to see our cute little Mia, of course."

Mia found it strange that she would show up when there was a first-round match to prepare for, and said as much. Diana beamed and slung an arm around her shoulders, then tipped her head and whispered into Mia's ear.

"Your opponent is Huel Paras."

Huel Paras. The Academy student who led the pack in tormenting Mia. The son of a merchant who had carved out a respectable place in the Empire, he had thrown himself into bullying her after she caused ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠an accident in mana-control class.

The instant she heard the name, Mia's eyes wavered. Then the tremor stopped, and a killing intent surfaced in those cute irises.

"Yeah, yeah. That's the look. Your eyes just got even prettier."

Diana's voice was almost a purr. Mia asked, carefully,

"But how do you know that, Senior...?"

The students still hadn't been told who they were fighting. And as far as Mia knew, the bracket was entirely random.

Diana's eyes narrowed, and she smiled slyly.

"If Violet and Sozeta got matched from round one, that'd be a disaster, right? Well, those two would probably crush everyone even if they dropped to the losers' bracket and climbed back up—but the instructors would rather not have that kind of accident."

"..."

"So round one is seeded by skill. From round two on it's random, and even the instructors don't know."

Having said that much, Diana's eyes lit up, and she leaned even closer.

"But even instructors can't have a read on every single student. So when they set the bracket, they give a few people in each year—first-years excluded—a chance to weigh in."

"That's..."

"It's only the chance to offer an opinion, of course."

Diana was careful to shut down any suspicion of impropriety in advance, making it clear she had no deciding vote.

"So I spent my one and only say on you, Mia. Luckily, the instructors listened."

At Diana's low voice, Mia looked at her with a dazed expression. Their faces were close enough that she could feel Diana's breath, but Mia didn't notice.

"Why... would you help me..."

"Because Mia's cute? Can I kiss you?"

"Aaaah, you can't!"

Only then did Mia lean away. Diana laughed, watching her, and rose from her seat.

"I was going to deal with the first-years' problem anyway. Win or lose today, Huel and the rest of the ringleaders are all getting sanctioned."

Until she met Zeroa, this was the situation Mia had dreamed of. Word of the bullying had reached the second-years through him, and Diana had moved to put a stop to it at once—only to have to put it off at Mia's own insistence. Trusting Rai and Zeroa, Mia had asked her not to intervene until the Martial Arts Tournament, and Diana had kept that promise.

And she had even arranged a place for Mia to pay it back.

"Not quite a last chance... but a chance to beat him to a pulp for sure. Ah, if you kill him you'll be disqualified, so be careful."

"Thank you."

Diana beamed, scooped the bowing Mia into a hug, and left the waiting room.

Mia sat back down, calmed her pounding heart, and drew a long breath. Failure had been her constant companion, and the feeling in her chest now was unfamiliar. Not a tremor born of fear, but excitement. She had never felt anything like it.

This, she decided, was probably the pleasure of revenge Rai had talked about. She worked to settle her heart.

Ordinarily the fighters weren't named at all—you walked in and the fight started. This time, though, outside guests had come, so the arena referee introduced the Academy students.

The stands were packed fuller than last year, but neither Mia nor Huel, competing for the first time, could have known that.

Huel entered the arena first, and Mia followed a beat later. A massive lump of iron larger than her own body floated along behind her, and every gaze in the stands snapped to it. Huel, apparently displeased at being outshone, furrowed his brow and looked her over.

"Tank. You actually showed up instead of running?"

"..."

"Too scared to even talk?"

"Huel Paras, conduct yourself with the dignity befitting an Academy student. Is mocking others what an Academy student does?"

Huel glanced at Dudley, the Academy staffer who had come up as referee, then turned his head away.

"Yes, yes, I simply must listen to a staffer who couldn't even make instructor. Losers do flock together, don't they?"

Dudley didn't rise to the sneer. He got them ready and stepped down. Even after his call to begin, the two of them didn't fight. They just looked at each other.

"You get hated wherever you go, don't you? I hear even Instructor Rai and the seniors are beating on you. Ugh, that kind of indiscriminate violence. No wonder you don't even react when I give you a little shove. I must've been going too easy, huh?"

In Huel's eyes, apparently, Mia's training looked like bullying. Consecutive spars in particular meant taking turns until she dropped, with attacks indistinguishable from real combat—so from the sidelines it looked like nothing more than a pack of people ganging up on one girl.

"Is getting hated a talent too? That's two talents you've got. Amazing~ If I apply for private lessons with Instructor Rai, think he'd let me hit you as much as I want? What do you..."

"Hey."

Mia cut off the mouth that had been running wild.

"When are you going to come at me? If you're not coming, I'll go to you."

"... This bitch has gotten real fucking cocky."

Huel scowled and drew his sword. At the same time, the Crescent behind Mia began to spin, drawing her into its center. The mere presence of that iron mass was oppressive; as it whirled around her like a guard, Huel couldn't easily close in, and could only circle.

"A Pure Mage, and you show up at the Martial Arts Tournament? Putting your faith in that brute hunk of iron, are you? I'll turn the whole thing into scrap."

He couldn't even approach thanks to the Crescent's presence, but his mouth was plenty lively. Huel began to gather mana. Mia had wondered why he was still calling her a Pure Mage when she'd changed course toward knighthood ages ago—then she looked at the weapon in her own hands and understood.

If you beat him with a bladed weapon, you won't get many hits in. When you fight that guy, take the spearhead off and go.

Rai's order. She'd come out with a staff instead of a spear, and Huel had gotten the wrong idea. Judging a person by their weapon alone, without even looking at her—it was so ridiculous Mia smiled in disbelief as she gathered her own mana.

The combat method Rai had built for her started from defense. If the other side had no intention of coming in, that was actually to her advantage.

Mana incomparable to the paltry trickle Huel was gathering roared out of her, and a mana orb the size of a fist took shape in front of her. Inside the transparent sphere, mana packed with enormous force whipped and churned at will. Even a complete amateur could tell it looked dangerous. Huel took a wary step back—and Mia smiled sweetly and poured out more mana.

A mana orb of whirling flame bloomed in front of her. The orbs she had named Akasha's Gem circled her like the Crescent, menacing everything around them.

"Not coming in? They're going to keep appearing, you know?"

Mia asked it of Huel, then generated one more Gem. As the massive lumps of mana continued to take shape with every passing moment, Huel seemed to grow restless. He focused everything he had gathered into his sword and swung it in a great arc.

A crimson blade-line followed the cut, and a sharp burst of force shot toward Mia. She had been about to move a Gem—then, faced with an attack far shabbier than expected, she aimed the Crescent straight at the oncoming force and launched it.

A huge explosion erupted where Crescent and force met, and Huel burst out through the cloud of dirt.

"Nothing left to protect you now, huh?"

Wearing a sickening smile, he closed in and swung. Mia spun her staff through a full circle and pinned his blade to the ground.

"Behind you. Watch it."

Before the words had even finished, the back of Huel's head went cold, and he dropped as if lying down.

The Crescent roared past with a sound as monstrous as its bulk, grazing Huel's hair before flying back to Mia. It had been coming in at high speed; it slammed to a halt right in front of her eyes, then spun up again, drawing her into its center and shielding her.

Huel scrambled backward as if crawling along the floor, his face twisted. Mia looked down at him with a bloodless expression.

"That's... all it was? Then I didn't even need to work this hard."

"You arrogant bitch..."

Huel glared as if he meant to kill her and charged. In the meantime Mia generated still more Gems, until four of them hung in the air around her—but she showed no intention of using either the Gems or the Crescent, and met him with the staff alone.

Every time he attacked, a precise thrust knocked the sword aside, and the thrust that followed hammered some new corner of his body. Where it hurt to be hit was something she had learned with her own flesh.

The gap in skill on display was overwhelming, but the truth was that Huel shouldn't have been getting pushed this far. He was an Academy student in his own right; he had a certain level of ability. The reason he kept getting tangled up was the Crescent and the Gems standing guard around Mia.

Mana orbs that looked dangerous to anyone with eyes drifted around her, and the Crescent, threatening by its mere existence, was restricting his lines of attack. With his paths limited, his strikes became easy to read and fell apart again and again; the moment he seemed about to seize an opening, a mana orb got in the way. She wasn't even doing anything in particular—but if a Gem wobbled and shifted position, it preyed on Huel's nerves. His inexperienced focus kept scattering, and in those gaps Mia's staff drove in.

"Ghk..."

Struck in the solar plexus, Huel staggered two steps back and dropped to one knee.

"You cheap bitch... feel good winning with a weapon like that?"

Mia tilted her head as if she genuinely didn't understand.

"If I'd used this properly, you'd already be dead."

The words that she was going easy on him stopped the tongue that had been jeering without rest. Looking down at him on his knees—frustration, humiliation, and rage all mixed on his face—Mia felt a shiver run down her spine.

It wasn't fear. It was exhilaration. A pleasure so terrifying it raised goosebumps climbed her spine and stained her brain. Mia's cheeks ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠flushed—then a cold feeling swept in as if none of that had happened, and buried the excitement.

Rai's warning to be careful, Zeroa's warm smile, and the faces of her seniors rose in her mind, and Mia shook the pleasure off. Then she let out a hollow little laugh.

"Let's stop."

Mia herself couldn't have said who she was talking to, but Huel took it as meant for him. He clenched his teeth and lunged.

"Fuck!! Don't you look down on me, you worthless bitch!!"

Watching him come screaming, Mia didn't move. Instead, the Gems that had only been drifting around her until now shifted. A Gem holding flame and a Gem of whirling mana slid between them and smashed into each other.

A colossal mana storm erupted and tore through the surroundings. Fire and blue mana devoured each other and scattered in every direction. Huel was flung to the far end of the arena, struck the barrier, and crumpled, limp.

After checking ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠that the unconscious Huel was still alive, Dudley announced the winner, and a roar of cheers burst from the stands.

Amid the noise, Mia found Rai sitting in the audience and bowed at the waist.

The distance was too great, and the surroundings too loud, for it to carry—but Mia put her whole heart into the words. Homage to the excellent teacher who had given her power, and the strength of will not to be consumed by that power.