Chapter 38
Chapter 38
I looked at the sword he had pointed at me and thought:
‘I can win.’
Maybe I had changed a little, too.
Before, I would have trembled just at the sight of a sword, but I wasn’t afraid.
…No, the truth was, I was still a little scared. But I could bear it.
Because I was certain I wouldn’t lose.
‘He can brag all he likes about how amazing he is, but he’s someone I’ve never seen in the scenario.’
When I first arrived at the training hall, I’d been taken aback.
All the competing Temporary Professors were faces I’d never seen before.
And since I’d played through every route in the scenario, there was only one meaning to the fact that I’d never seen any of them.
They were extras.
Characters with no significance whatsoever in the scenario.
And sure enough—
-Win rate against an insolent swordsman in a Duel: 100%
An absolute win rate, no less!
“It’s not too late. If you kneel down and apologize now, I’ll forgive you.”
The cold sword pointed at me, sending a chill through the air.
It felt like I was facing a knight, not a mage.
But that didn’t mean I felt threatened.
We’d only just met, but I could see his weakness the moment I laid eyes on him.
‘He’s a trash build.’
It was because of his Sword Mage class.
‘Dual Knights and Sword Mages are different.’
Dual Knight, Dual Knights.
Sword-and-Magic Art practitioner, Sword Mage.
Both were classes that wielded sword and magic at the same time, but there was a major difference between them.
‘Dual Knights focus on the sword, while Sword Mages focus on magic.’
Both classes could wield formidable power if they grew properly.
The synergy between sword and magic couldn’t be dismissed.
But his problem was—
‘He’s a Sword Mage, yet he’s focused on swordsmanship. The only reason he learned magic is to use it as decoration and show off.’
I could roughly guess what was going on inside his head.
A Prestigious Swordsmanship Family.
A family of sword fiends.
He had probably given up on his talent for swordsmanship and turned his attention to magic.
If only to attract attention with magic.
‘But his magic, for all that, is shoddy beyond belief.’
That was probably why my win rate had come out at 100%.
If he’d been a proper mage or knight, the odds would have been much lower.
‘There’s no way I’ll lose to someone like this. I don’t even need to use the new power I’ve gained.’
Fwoooosh!
My eyes took in a sight no one else could see.
His movements were rendered in spell formulas, and I could see the magical flaws in them.
The problem was that there were too many.
Enough to make me hesitate over what to choose.
‘No matter where I strike, I can win.’
Then, in an instant, a good idea came to me.
One that would let me win a little more dramatically.
The question was whether it would work, but—
‘I think I can do it.’
An instinctive judgment.
I watched him bring his sword down.
An ordinary mage would have blocked it with a Shield, but I did something entirely different.
I reached out a hand.
As if I were going to stop his sword.
“Are you insane?!”
He was taken aback for a moment.
No matter how angry he was, it would be a problem if he seriously injured me—a member of the Ecclesia family.
He didn’t need to worry about that.
Thwack!
My hand knocked his wrist aside with perfect timing.
His eyes went wide with shock.
The reason I could do something like this was another one of my traits.
-‘Thousand Changes Versatility.’
-You possess ‘unprecedented talent’ regardless of the field!
I had unprecedented talent as a knight, too.
“Be grateful. I’ll make a special exception and show you what a Sword Mage—a practitioner of the Sword-and-Magic Art—is.”
I cast a spell.
First Star Rank spell, ‘Instability.’
“You bastard!!”
He tried to regain his stance as he cast a spell.
He tried to unleash a powerful attack spell, but—
Thwack!
I moved my foot and struck his ankle.
His stance, already wavering from the ‘Instability’ spell, crumbled completely, and I tried to strike his ankle again in quick succession.
“You think I’ll fall for that again?!”
He thrust his sword out to block my kick, but it was a feint.
Flash!
A Magic Arrow struck him square in the face.
“Gah?!”
Papat!
Magic Arrows rained down like bolts, and he raised a Shield around his face, but—
Thwack!
I kicked his leg again, and he toppled over onto his back.
And then—
Rumble!
A spear of ice shot up right beside where he had fallen.
“……”
He swallowed hard.
The spear of ice had risen right next to his neck.
If it had been just a little farther to the side, his head would have been cut off.
In other words, I had won.
And won completely one-sidedly.
“Just as I thought, how boring. The hardest part of that Duel was holding back a yawn.”
“!!”
A dead silence fell over the hall.
Everyone stared at me as if they’d seen something impossible.
“T-This… This can’t be…”
Kansir ground his teeth, but when his eyes met mine—
“!!”
He finally lowered his head.
He had acknowledged his defeat.
‘At least he’s not completely stupid. So he really does come from a Prestigious Swordsmanship Family.’
The Malvern, a Prestigious Swordsmanship Family.
It was a clan of sword-crazed sword fiends, and its tradition was to accept the outcome of a Duel cleanly, without making excuses or quibbling, no matter who the opponent was.
‘Wasn’t their family motto something like, “If you lose, humbly admit it and learn from it”?’
In many ways, it was different from the Prestigious Magic Family, with its sinister and dangerous disposition.
A family with which the protagonists of the “Knight” class inevitably became deeply entangled whenever you played them.
‘Well, I won’t have anything to do with them at all.’
Kansir staggered down from the platform, and the reporters began murmuring belatedly.
“Did you just see that? I’m not imagining things, am I?”
“Could Sir Kansir have let his guard down? Otherwise, there’s no way he’d have been beaten so one-sidedly.”
They all looked as though they couldn’t believe what they’d witnessed with their own eyes.
But now, they looked at me with a little more caution.
They’d all sensed it instinctively.
That I wasn’t Ban the Trash anymore.
‘This isn’t enough. They’re still not sure.’
Just then, I heard a voice.
“I enjoyed watching that Duel, Young Master Ban. It was truly splendid.”
Another rival professor.
Ballas, the adopted son of a Prestigious Magic Family!
A prodigy who had astonished the scholarly world with a groundbreaking paper.
His gaze, filled with unmistakable hostility, turned toward me.
“I never imagined Young Master Ban would perform such a ‘miracle.’ I’m certainly curious to see what you’ll be like during the ‘Academic Training’ that begins tomorrow.”
Miracle.
It was a word he’d deliberately chosen to belittle what I’d just done, as though it had been a fluke.
But—
“Sure. You can look forward to it.”
I nodded, then slowly turned my gaze toward the spectators.
As though I wanted everyone, not just him, to hear what I said.
“Just looking at me will be an opportunity to open your eyes. You’ll learn what it means to be on an entirely different level.”
“!!”
My declaration sent a rush of excitement through the hall.
The reporters made a fuss.
“Write up Young Master Ban’s statement just now!”
“Send it to the main office at once! This is a scoop! The headline should be, ‘Young Master Ban Declares He’ll Show Everyone the Difference in Their Levels!’”
And so, the training began in earnest.
Meanwhile, there was someone keeping an ear out for news of Ban.
“Do I really have to go to the training?”
It was Former President Randolf!
‘Normally, even I wouldn’t be so shameless as to tag along to New Professor Training.’
The reason he was thinking this was Ban.
‘Something’s strange. Why did traces of the Ascender lead to Ban the Trash?’
While searching for clues about the Ascender, Randolf had realized something astonishing.
The place where Ban the Trash had been hiding overlapped with traces of the Ascender’s magical power.
‘That’s impossible. It must be a coincidence.’
Ban and the Ascender? Even he knew it was an absurdly far-fetched guess.
But—
‘Still, it might be best to check, just once. Something about this feels wrong.’
Former President Randolf thought as he read an article titled “Ban the Trash Causes Trouble!”
The instinct of an archmage who had once reached the Lofty Realm of level eight was sounding an alarm.
On the day of Academic Training.
A small crow flew into the training hall.
Bernstein, who had arrived early, bowed his head toward the crow.
“Have you arrived, Director?”
[…I came here in secret, so don’t call me Director.]
The crow was Former President Randolf’s transformed form!
“But what brings you here? You’ve never taken an interest in training before.”
[I was bored, so I thought I’d drop by.]
“Hmm? I thought you were busy searching for traces of the Ascender.”
[Don’t pry.]
Ban and the Ascender?
Even he knew it was an absurd guess, so Former President Randolf hid the fact that he’d come to see Ban.
But then, as though he’d read Randolf’s mind, Bernstein said:
“I thought you’d come to see Professor Ban.”
[…Ban? Why would I go see that brat?]
“Come inside and see for yourself.”
Randolf, in his crow form, perched on Bernstein’s shoulder and went into the training hall. Before long, his eyes widened.
An unbelievable sight was unfolding before him.
“Mana control: Ban Ecclesia, highest score!”
“Practical application of magic: Ban Ecclesia, highest score!”
“Practical response to magic: Ban Ecclesia, highest score!”
Ban was racking up the highest score in most of the categories!
[No, how did this happen?]
“Didn’t I tell you? Ban is the one to watch most closely among this year’s new professors. Look.”
Ballas was stepping up to the podium.
The man who had become the adopted son of a Prestigious Magic Family thanks to his groundbreaking theory.
After a string of unexpected defeats, his face had grown rigid.
“I am Ballas. I will be presenting the Fractal Defense Theory, which I have recently developed further.”
Ballas glared at Ban with a menacing look.
“Young Master Ban, would you help me? I’ll need someone to demonstrate my Fractal Defense Theory against. Since you’re the one who claimed that the Fractal could be countered, Young Master Ban, you should be the perfect opponent.”
It was a provocation!
Everyone held their breath and watched the two of them.
Former President Randolf’s eyes also shone.
So? There’s no way Ban could be a match for him, is there?
Now he would see.
Whether the far-fetched speculation he had made was actually possible or not.
“Fine. That won’t be difficult. But are you sure?”
Ban cocked his head to one side.
“You might have to scrap your theory as of today.”
“!!”
Ballas let out a hollow laugh of disbelief.
“Just shut up and watch. This is the Fractal Shield I devised! No one can break it!”
Fwaash!!
A Shield unfolded, made of endlessly repeating hexagons.
A near-perfect recreation of a Fractal Structure.
Ballas cried out, looking triumphant.
“Well?! This Shield overcomes the limitation that a Fractal Structure can’t be properly realized in actual magic, and possesses the ultimate defensive power of a perfect—!”
But then.
Step.
Ban walked toward the Fractal Shield.
“You call this perfect?”
Tap.
He knocked on the Shield with a hand wrapped in Mana.
As if he were knocking on a door.
At the same time—
Crash!
The Shield shattered.
“N-no?! What sorcery did you use?! That can’t—!!”
“Try casting it again.”
“W-what did you say?”
“I said to cast it again if you don’t believe me.”
Ballas ground his teeth and cast the Fractal Shield again.
But the same thing happened.
Crash!! Crash!!
The exact same thing happened three times.
Th-this is impossible.
Everyone froze at the unbelievable sight.
There was only one person who remained at ease: Ban.
“Just as I feared. It’s utterly boring.”
“!!”
“I’ll show you what true, perfect defense looks like.”
Then Ban said something even more shocking.
“Kansir, Ballas. The two of you, cast attack spells at me at the same time.”
“!!”
“No, just the two of you won’t be enough.”
Ban turned toward the area behind the platform, where the professors overseeing the training seminar were waiting.
“Would one of the professors care to come out as well?”
Ban raised the corner of his mouth.
As if to provoke them.
“To prove the greatness of my new First Star Rank defensive spell, ‘Satellite Formation,’ I don’t think these two will be enough. The professors should be just right.”
“!!”
The hall froze, for an entirely different reason.
Ban had just provoked even the full professors.
That was right.
This was the “plan” Ban had prepared.
Through this training seminar, he intended to overwhelm not only his fellow newly appointed professors, but the professors above them as well.
Meanwhile—
…That really is Ban the Trash?
Former President Randolf swallowed hard.