Do Be Careful of the Spring Frost
A duel had always been a sacred thing.
It was a desperate struggle fought to defend the honor of one's house, of oneself, of those one held dear. And because honor only held value when witnessed by a third party, every duel required a second—someone whose role was not merely to record the outcome, but to judge the fairness of the process itself.
Regrettably, all of that applied only to official duels.
Most of the contests that broke out at the Academy were half-baked, underground affairs that ignored every such nicety. The reason was simple: a proper duel usually meant dragging a professor in as second. Stating the cause, defining the stakes, agreeing on the rules… rather than wade through all that tedious protocol, it was far easier for the parties simply to settle things quietly between themselves.
The duel about to take place was no different.
"So you actually showed up. I'll give you credit for not running away like a coward."
At the appointed place, the appointed people appeared. Still wearing that arrogant little smirk, Silvia looked Carmilla over.
"Yes, and I am ever so grateful that Senior arrived on time as well."
Carmilla, for her part, answered with a bright, untroubled smile—not a hint of intimidation in her. Anyone who knew her ability would have said that even the professors yielded a step to her in this sort of matter; that she could still smile must have meant she simply did not yet understand whom she faced.
"I should have said this earlier, but here are my terms. If I win, you get down on the ground and beg. I'll overlook a spirited first-year's little act of rebellion that far."
Well. Fools were brave everywhere. With the air of someone about to teach a painful lesson, Silvia delivered her demand, half-advice and half-ultimatum.
"My request is a simple one. If I win, you will listen to what I have to say."
"Fine. I'll listen all you like—provided you can actually win."
No further words were needed. In that moment they were enemies. The instant each confirmed the other's presence, the duel could begin at any second; all that remained was a trigger.
"I shall yield the first move."
It was a line that somehow came out backwards. Yielding the first strike was the magnanimity the stronger party—Silvia—ought properly to have shown. That Carmilla had spoken it instead…
"Hmph. So I've been thoroughly underestimated."
To some ears, it could only sound like a provocation.
"Ice Spear."
The quiet incantation froze the air. Moisture gathered as if answering the sudden chill, condensing into droplets, then into ice. In the final instant before the crystals fully set, a delicate adjustment of cold magic refined them—and sharp icicles bloomed in empty space. At the same moment a lesser non-elemental spell—Levitation—took hold. The spears that should have fallen to the earth rose instead and hovered.
That was 1-Star cold magic: Ice Spear.
Within seconds Silvia had three or four glittering shards floating above her shoulders. She thrust her hand forward.
Whish—!
The ice lances streaked toward head, throat, and heart—lethal magic forged in a single breath and laced with killing intent. For a freshman it was almost excessive; she even felt a flicker of regret for going so hard.
"Wow. That was vicious."
The regret did not last long.
"If those had hit me, I might well have died, Senior."
Carmilla was still standing there, perfectly unharmed.
How…?
A blow that would have killed an ordinary person on the spot had been shrugged off. Silvia's combat instincts were sharp; she grasped the situation at once. Shattered ice lay broken at Carmilla's feet. For some reason the attack had failed.
"So you didn't come here without a plan after all."
"Indeed. Something of that level could never defeat me."
"Good."
The cheeky tone was now open provocation. Silvia might have been expected to scowl—yet the twist that curved her lips was a crooked smile. For the first time she acknowledged her opponent.
Half-measures would not work on this one. Then she would simply approach from another angle.
"Frost Rain."
She clenched a fist in midair. Cold drawn from every direction coalesced into ice. At a glance it looked no different from Ice Spear—yet it was not the same. The ice formed directly above Carmilla's head: hundreds of hailstones, each packing the force of a miniature Ice Spear. When she opened her hand, they all fell at once.
No—fallen was the wrong word. She had merely released what she had been holding aloft.
"Heh… how about this time?"
Frost Rain was 2-Star cold magic that remotely forged countless tiny ice shards over a target's head. Its peculiarity was that it required no auxiliary spells—pure cold magic alone. The formula itself was simple: create ice of a certain shape and let go. Chance, however, had given this world gravity. Anything suspended high enough was bound to fall. The laws of the world completed the spell.
Thud, thwip-thwip-crack—!
An unseasonable hailstorm hammered down. The sound was nothing like ordinary hail. Each fragment was shaped like a tiny blade; instead of shattering harmlessly on the ground, they carved and sank into the earth. It was as if hundreds of miniature daggers had been dropped from the sky.
"Still alive, my darling junior? Care to answer?"
Certain of victory, Silvia called out with laughter in her voice. This was precisely what she did best. Failure was simply not possible.
You are excellent.
Once, mages had come to the estate to evaluate her cold magic. She learned later they were combat mages serving the kingdom, invited at her parents' request. Veterans of countless battles who had seen every manner of spell, their judgment was closer to real combat than any other appraisal. At their request she displayed everything she had honed. They measured her by their own standards and reached a single conclusion:
Her magic was well-suited to killing people.
So Silvia continued to refine her cold magic—because they had recommended it. After graduating from the Academy, enlisting in the royal army as a combat mage was a solid career path. Follow it, and a good life awaited: sufficient honor, sufficient pay, an elite course that anyone might envy.
Yet at some point a small doubt had taken root in one corner of her heart.
Was "you seem good at killing people" truly praise?
To tell a girl of barely fourteen that she had a talent for murder—was that not somehow wrong?
It was a very old question. Even if she received an answer now, nothing would change.
"To pour so much killing intent into your magic… you must have disliked me terribly."
Especially now that even that talent was being denied.
"You…!"
Carmilla stood without having taken a single step. The meaning was clear: even the highest-level magic Silvia could currently manifest—2-Star cold magic—had not reached her.
"Don't be ridiculous… something like this can't be possible!"
"It is perfectly possible, as much as one likes."
In a flash of temper Silvia hurled another Ice Spear. The cast was purely emotional, yet its power was real.
Crack—!
The attack shattered against something hard. Through eyes twisted by fury she saw the broken ice shards once more. At last Silvia understood.
"Barrier magic…?"
It was often said that defense held the advantage over offense. The idea had begun with siege warfare, but once magic advanced far enough it applied there as well. Simply put, it was a matter of cost. A 2-Star attack spell could be stopped by a 1-Star defensive spell. One might wonder, then, whether attack magic was inefficient. Fortunately, a barrier had to be of the opposing attribute to cancel an attack, so offensive magic retained its value. Defensive magic demanded little mana, yet if one lacked solid information about the opponent its very purpose evaporated.
In that regard cold magic excelled. At a glance it looked like ice-element magic and seemed stoppable by a fire-attribute barrier—yet cold magic primarily delivered physical strikes in the form of ice. A thin wall of flame could not fully absorb the momentum of ice shards that had not yet melted. Paradoxically, the effective counter to cold magic was Barrier: a 1-Star spell that raised a tangible force field around the caster to repel physical attacks. Mages usually scorned it in mage-versus-mage combat… with one exception. It could stop no magic at all, yet it cost so little mana that against cold magic alone it possessed extreme advantage.
And Carmilla was using that spell as if it were the most natural thing in the world.
That was deeply strange.
"As though you knew everything already…"
A mere first-year—possessing magic knowledge this advanced?
Crunch.
Somewhere in the girl's body a sound that should never have been heard was born.
"Don't make me laugh."
She ground her teeth, chewing over an emotion that might have been rage or regret. Drawing every last scrap of remaining mana to its limit, Silvia prepared yet another spell.
The old magic would not work. No—more precisely, this kind of magic would not work. Then she would use something more fundamental, more classical.
In answer to her imagination, the mana within her pulsed.
Colder. Still colder. Cold enough to freeze anything that irritated her!
Whether the sound she muttered was an incantation or a monologue, she finally smiled. Chill bloomed from her fingertips and rose like a blue mist, blanketing every direction, freezing the grass around her to death.
What she cast was 3-Star ice magic.
Blizzard.
"I'll freeze that smug face of yours solid!"
It was a realm far too distant for any second-year Academy student to reach.