Grade Evaluation Ceremony (5)
Grade Evaluation Ceremony (5)
It was the sword Sharon had offered.
The cadet acting as official witness accepted it, flustered. "U-Um, the ratio...?"
At his question, Sharon murmured coldly.
"It won't be necessary. Whatever you set will clearly be a lie. Instead."
Sharon's gaze sharpened toward Ian.
"Ian, if what you say proves false, you will confess all your crimes at the disciplinary committee hearing."
The disciplinary committee.
Ostensibly impartial, the committee was still heavily influenced by the subject's future prospects. Rina Rosewell was a good example. The exact reason Ian had been ramping up the spectacle was to gain an edge in that hearing. He agreed with Sylvia's opinion that building any amount of positive visibility would help. Sharon's aggressive stance might well be a sign she had caught on to his plan and was trying to sabotage it.
'Why is she so fixated on the disciplinary committee?'
The heroines were clearly in league. What made Sharon spearhead the attack so openly? That actually struck him as the greater mystery. Assuming Sharon Pierce was the culprit who pushed Pongpongi off the rooftop wasn't a stretch. Among the heroines, it was Sharon Pierce who possessed overwhelmingly superior physical ability and a cold, dispassionate nature. She was the sort who resolved her childhood traumas solely through growth. If her motive was that Pongpongi had begun obstructing that growth, a few uneasy details fell into place.
'If the pressure from her family to keep growing became too much and she snapped, lashing out at Pongpongi who had just confessed to her...'
At first, she might have shoved him simply to remove an obstacle. Then, when Ian himself survived, the possibility existed that she formulated a more meticulous scheme to eliminate him entirely through the disciplinary committee.
'Considering she was raised in House Pierce, that's entirely plausible.'
Like any traditional knightly house, they valued honor above life. And true to its philosophy of survival of the fittest, the siblings of such a household were steeped in every kind of intrigue and maneuver. At the very least, her background in House Pierce wouldn't have taught her to regard human life as a particularly precious thing.
Sharon's eyes were endlessly cold, unequivocally resolute.
'...No point agonizing over it now.'
He'd never entertained the notion of restoring his relationship with Sharon in the first place.
'Even if, by some miracle, everything resolved itself, I'd still end up her mortal enemy.'
Because of the next main storyline: Chapter 2, The Frost-Rimed River. Conflict with her was unavoidable. The only solution to the rift between them, now, was for one side to crumble. It just meant he had one more reason to defeat Sharon at the disciplinary committee hearing. So Ian simply nodded.
"On my honor as a Blackangus, I swear it."
Honestly, it was a profit no matter how he looked at it. That sword Pongpongi had gifted Sharon? It was worth a decent sum. And if he lost he had to confess his sins? He wasn't sure what kind of misconception Sharon Pierce was laboring under, but he had no sins to confess. Even if he took on Pongpongi's karmic debt as his own, an 'I'm sorry for confessing' would suffice. This was a guaranteed gain.
"Should I be defeated, I will lay bare the full truth before the committee."
Not that failure was an option.
"Cadet Ian? It's all well and good to converse, but we're not blessed with an abundance of time."
Before he knew it, Ian's turn had come around again. As a gesture of apology for his outburst, Ian dipped his head to the instructor. He stepped forward. Unlike the first day, there was no conspicuous measuring apparatus today. Just a raised platform roughly three meters wide and three meters long, surrounded by transparent walls designed to contain the release of mana. All he had to do was step onto it and manifest the ability he had prepared.
"Measurement of mana manipulation ability, begin."
At the instructor's signal, a murmur rippled through the crowd. Ian swept his gaze across the room once. Sharon's fan club jeering at him, led by their chief Lukasich. Sharon Pierce glaring daggers at him. And scores of cadets watching with eyes that were half curiosity, half suspicion. Today, he would etch a definitive impression into all of them. Not as Pongpongi, but as Ian Blackangus.
"I shall commence. I will demonstrate my mana manipulation through stable midair suspension and subsequent movement while levitated."
The instructor and the graders nodded. Ian looked down at the back of his hand. Thin metal-alloy rings gleaming in a different color on each finger. They were crafted from levitation stone materials processed at the optimal ratio. He clenched his fist, focusing his senses on them. In an instant, the rings vanished from sight.
'Extract them, just like this.'
He circulated the extracted compounds along his body's mana circuits. Then spread them across his entire form.
'Here, coat it as thinly as possible over the skin.'
From the wrists to the shoulders. Parts of the chest, the knees, and from the ankles down to the toes. These were the optimal positions for levitation, discovered over dozens of failed attempts with Christina through the night. From the outside, it should look like he was wearing plates that only covered a few essential areas.
"...Whoa, what is that."
"Geomancy can do that? Is he an alchemist?"
"That's impressive."
"Ian, you can do it!"
Gasps of admiration rose around him. Meanwhile, the faces of those who'd been wishing for his ruin soured. Regrettably for them, he hadn't even started levitating yet. Ian closed his eyes and focused his senses toward his feet. The hard floor of the testing ground. Magnetism spread through extraction and transmutation.
Then, at a certain moment.
— Wooooong
Ian's body floated into the air.
"?!"
Once aloft, he remained fixed in place, as motionless as if welded there. Midair fixation. A technique attainable only when a mage's mana manipulation reached an extraordinary level. It was not a sight one saw every day.
"H-He... He's floating!"
"He can actually do that?!"
"Not a single tremor..."
Some of the Aether-class mages who understood what this meant were the first to voice their awe. Then, a delayed wave of shock drowned the hall.
"WHOOOAAAHHH!"
"Is that for real?!"
"Nyaaaaaaa!"
Ian stepped down from the platform, a faint grin on his lips. At the far end of that smile were Sharon and her coterie of guardians.
◆
In the spectator stands of the grade-assessment hall.
"A Saintess Candidate is a Saintess Candidate, after all."
"Don't get greedy. Lay a finger on the Saintess and even a guild like Horizon will be wiped off the map, headquarters and all."
Until just moments ago, conversation here had revolved solely around Saintess Candidate Aria's overwhelming divine power. Ian's display flooded the space with shock.
"Wh-What the..."
"What is that? Is he hovering midair? With earth elementals?"
"I've never seen anything like that."
The most startled among them was Ray of the Magic Tower's Lichten branch.
"Suspending every point of the body with mana without any deviation. Doing so by harnessing mana in constant motion along the circuits... Even our Tower Master doesn't do that."
Ray muttered, looking somewhat dazed. In contrast, Elisha replied in a rather curt tone.
"Probably because it's a pointless trick, so they don't bother."
"Well, yes, but still. That's the whole meaning of midair fixation! It's a statement that says, 'I'm so exceptional, I can pull off this utterly useless feat as if it's nothing at all!' For a cadet to demonstrate that..."
"Remaining completely motionless in midair is admittedly a decent ability. But honestly. Who's to say there isn't some kind of trick involved...?"
"Trick or not, it's impressive, that's..."
Ray, trying to mount a rebuttal, cut herself off to shoot Elisha a glare.
"Sis."
At the pointed edge in Ray's voice, Elisha rolled her eyes.
"Hmm?"
"Honor the unspoken rules. It's my turn this time."
Thus, the women of the Magic Tower and the Horizon Guild descended into bickering.
Deep in the viewing gallery, in a corner thick with shadow, a lone figure was looking down at the scene below.
"...It's amusing, but it's a sleight of hand."
A girl with hair as white as if it held the stars and eyes of a deep navy blue. She was observing Ian with an expression that was both dignified and brimming with curiosity. Quietly, a knight of the Imperial Guard, the Order of the White Lily, approached her side.
"If you've seen enough, let us depart now."
"Sir Jerome, didn't you come here to see Sharon Pierce? She hasn't even started yet."
"...You are well aware my purpose for this visit is as your escort. Please, let us go before the exits become congested."
The girl, Asteria, remained still in her seat, looking down at Sharon Pierce. Even from afar, her face appeared endlessly cold, as if rimed with frost.
"Hmm. The young Lady Sharon would be rather crestfallen to hear that."
Even as she spoke those words, Asteria's gaze kept drifting, as if of its own accord, to the black-haired boy. So this was the young lord of the now-fallen House Blackangus.
"Things have gotten interesting. I believe I've seen all I needed to. Let's go."
The girl smiled brightly and exited the testing hall alongside her knight. They reached a secluded, unfrequented path. A twitch of the girl's fingers. Her pristine hair transformed in an instant into radiant, noble golden locks. Seeing this, Knight Jerome inquired.
"Shall we return as you are, then?"
"No."
"...Pardon?"
"I'm thinking of enrolling here."
"But, Your Imperial Highness, I—"
Knight Jerome of the Imperial Guard hastily glanced around. At the sight, Asteria beamed.
"Worry not. I've cast a Silence spell around us."
"My apologies."
"I said it's fine. Anyway."
Asteria clasped her hands behind her back and strode a few steps ahead.
"I look forward to seeing what else the young lord of House Blackangus will show us."
◆
Meanwhile, Ian was busy raking in coin purses. Gleaming gold coins, brilliant and bright. And a priceless sword. He looked at the items' original owners with an expression that was a touch too smug for someone basking in honorable attention.
"I'll put it to good use, hm?"
He grinned.
Ian smiled.