If You Can’t Win…

“Oh, he hit it!”

“What!?”

It was a moment when something no one expected happened, except for me.

Only I know that Dale has the nullification ability.

And no matter how much power is put into the ball, if that power comes into contact with the nullification ability, it becomes weaker than a ball thrown with full force.

“I hit it! I hit it!! Teacher! I hit the ball!”

“Well done, Dale.”

Dale jumped up and down excitedly.

He seemed so happy to have hit the ball… but is baseball a sport where just hitting the ball is enough?

“But when we explained the rules earlier, what did we say you should do after hitting the ball?”

“Um… Run?”

“Yes, where should you run to?”

“Um…”

“You should run to first base.”

Don’t put a question mark over your head.

“…Was first base this way?”

“That’s third base. You should run with your eating hand.”

“I’m ambidextrous!”

In the midst of this now-familiar banter, the ball Dale hit fell in the middle of the field and started rolling.

The bunt hit squarely started rolling into the infield.

As it’s clearly a valid hit, they need to defend.

“Haha! What’s that guy doing?”

“You shouldn’t get too excited just because you hit it once. Catching a ball like this is no problem!”

The fielders immediately advanced to where the ball was.

Then they tried to casually bring their gloves to it, but when the ball touched the glove, it didn’t gather inside but bounced off in another direction.

This is the result of just bringing the glove without actually catching the ball.

“Huh, wha!?”

“What’s wrong with the ball.”

In normal baseball, this would be a stupid thing to do, but from their perspective, it must be bewildering.

The gloves they’re using now would have clearly used magic to attract surrounding objects.

Yet the ball rolling on the field ignores that power.

Afterwards, several fielders rushed in, but the ball not only escaped their hands but was bouncing here and there due to the repulsive force.

“What’s with that! Why can’t we catch it!?”

It’s natural.

Nullification applies to tools too.

And when that power comes into contact with the applied tool, its effect is maintained, even if temporarily.

The baseball now has acquired the ‘property of temporarily ignoring mana’ due to Dale’s ability.

“The more I look at it, the more similar its nature is to mana. That thing.”

In fact, even with mana, when the controller is separated, mana remains in that place for a certain period of time.

The difference is that mana is just a lump of physical force that slowly disappears if will isn’t infused into it, but with Dale, the property of nullification remains as it is even without clear manipulation.

The fact that it interferes with all kinds of phenomenon manipulation with just the remaining power can be a powerful weapon in itself.

“You idiots! What are you doing right now!!”

Feeling frustrated by the bouncing ball, Eric jumped from the pitcher’s mound and grabbed the completely stopped ball with his bare hand and threw it.

He threw it to where the third baseman was. But Dale’s feet were already on third base.

If he hadn’t wasted time at the beginning, he would have scored a point right away and won with just a bunt.

“How can you roll around like that just because you couldn’t catch one ground ball!? Don’t you have any sense!?”

“Ugh.”

The students on the opposing team were intimidated by Eric’s scolding.

But Dale had already advanced to third base, and since they hadn’t gotten three outs, they had to prepare to face the next batter.

If it had been a tie, they might have had a chance.

“…You.”

“Yes~ The comeback cleanup hitter Seine has appeared~”

As I stood at the batter’s box holding the bat, I nodded towards Eric who was glaring at me.

“What are you doing? Not throwing?”

“Damn it!!”

He threw an ultra-fast ball out of frustration.

-Tang!!

But it’s just fast, too obvious a ball.

Realizing I had hit it squarely, I dropped the bat from my hand and gestured towards the boy standing on third base.

“Dale, come this way.”

“Yes~!”

Dale ran towards me at my call and stood in front of me.

Meanwhile, Eric’s gaze was fixed on the sky.

The ball fell outside the field.

It was a perfect home run.

“Did we score with this?”

“That’s right. Since we agreed to do only one set, this is our victory.”

“We won!”

Dale immediately spread both arms and shouted.

Is the first taste of victory so joyful?

“We won! Woohooo!!”

Dale’s cheers resounded loudly, but no one at the scene actually cheered along with his shout.

Rather, they all had gloomy faces as if they had lost.

“…Huh.”

Dale, who belatedly realized this atmosphere, looked around the scene and then began to shrink his shoulders anxiously.

“Isn’t everyone happy?”

How could they be happy?

To begin with, this match wasn’t a bet where the winning side takes over the club.

It was just to gauge each other’s level. Rather, the existing club members would have realized their situation, seeing that they couldn’t cope with any of the pitching abilities Eric showed.

The fact that the one trying to push them out has incomparable skills to their own.

“Ah, right. You must be happy you won!?”

And with such skills, he must be feeling enraged.

Eric threw his glove to the ground with a thud!

Then he approached me with fiery eyes and started to bark.

“Teacher, I’ll acknowledge what needs to be acknowledged. Honestly, I underestimated you at first. I didn’t think someone who just helped with rear support on the battlefield would have this level of skill.”

Rear support, he says. That’s too much.

Despite how I look, I actually rolled around on the front lines for 10 years.

“And that girl over there.”

But Eric didn’t stop there and glared at Dale.

Dale shrank back behind me for a moment. I thought he might unleash a barrage of insults, but Eric’s gaze didn’t linger for long.

“…That kid also did something unexpected. I didn’t think he would be versed in Dispel. Thanks to that, all the formations we planned became useless.”

This child doesn’t have Dispel, but a nullification constitution.

Anyway, he wasn’t wrong in the point that it caught us off guard unexpectedly, so I didn’t bother to argue against those words.

There was something more important.

“Yes, yes, it’s really amazing. If these two lead the team, it could grow into a proper team regardless of the humiliation so far. If only these two would lead the baseball club!”

“…If someone heard that, they might think it was decided that you guys would step down because of this defeat.”

“Of course, you just wanted to teach us! That even without mana, you can create breaking balls that confuse us, and that even someone of commoner origin can hit balls thrown by someone with sky-high confidence, so talking about commoners or nobles is foolish!”

Why is someone who understands that so well getting so angry?

If they didn’t bet the club on this, they could just accept the result and quietly find a compromise.

“But those things you used, teacher, we could clearly use them too if we learned, right?”

“…That’s true.”

“Right! If we learn them, we could use them better than those guys! What you’ve shown now doesn’t mean those guys are better than us!”

Eric turned to look at the existing club members while shouting loudly.

The reason they were intimidated by that gaze wasn’t just because Eric was a high-ranking noble.

He had personally demonstrated in front of them that he had skills befitting his family.

“You really… How can you be so stubborn that you won’t back down even a bit?”

“Our team is far superior to begin with! We’re the ones who should be in charge here!”

Has his initial thought not changed even after the previous exchange?

“If you can’t win…”

No, it probably got stronger.

From the beginning, to define what he did as just mischief, he was accurately digging into the contradiction of the phrase ‘fair competition’ from the start.

“If you can’t win, competition is useless for anything. Am I wrong!?”

In fact, no one could readily open their mouth to Eric’s words right now.

Not the club members, not even Gillette the president… Yes, they must have felt a lot in the previous game.

With someone with superior skills aiming for the club, whether it’s permissible for them, who are inferior, to keep their place here.

“…Yes, as you say, Eric.”

To be frank, I was also on Eric’s side regarding his opinion.

The former president’s intention was good, but given the disastrous results, it would be difficult to assert firmly.

“Although sports emphasize fair play, in the end, it’s a fight that divides into winners and losers. If there are bad habits that hinder that victory, you’d want to get rid of them right away.”

Moreover, depending on the competition, isn’t sports something where national honor or huge rewards are at stake?

As it’s also a position representing the school, if you approach it seriously, taking the same attitude as Eric would be the correct answer.

“Yes, knowing that well, why…”

Yes, I’d like to feel deep sympathy for Eric too.

“Because it was adults like you now, who ignored procedures and consideration, that caused the war that continued until two years ago.”

If this wasn’t an academy built on the border line.

If it wasn’t a place that emerged as a symbol of peace after the war.

“……”

Eric was at a loss for words.

No, more accurately, it would be closer to say he was breathless.

As if my words had come as a shock to him.

“…The lack of rebuttal means your family also suffered some damage in the war, doesn’t it?”

Of course, even if there’s daily life outside the battlefield, it’s not completely unaffected by war.

Eric’s excessive obsession with competition.

It might be an attitude he developed after realizing the aftermath of the war, which left only losers in the end, under the name of a peace agreement.

“Yes, Eric. As you think, in sports, it might be the right answer to do everything to win within fair rules. But on the battlefield I saw, unlike sports, there were no rules at all. Even if there were, they were easily broken depending on the situation.”

But no matter how quickly he became an adult, isn’t he still a child who hasn’t become independent?

Generally, students tend to think that the environment within the school is everything.

For him, this school is probably most of the world that makes up himself, but looking at the entire continent, this school is clearly a place used as a symbol for peace and social interaction.

“With such a war having just ended, let’s say we turn a blind eye to actions that boldly ignore set rules in this place where students from various countries gather. Who can guarantee that it won’t spread into an international problem, becoming a starting point?”

“That’s…”

“If you repeatedly ignore respect and discipline for the sake of small causes, it’s bound to lead to an irreversible situation someday.”

What he did might be for the sake of the baseball club, but in this international society called Maris Academy, it’s clearly defined as wrong.

As he has confidence in his actions while receiving support from those around him, unless someone puts the brakes on from the outside, his actions will someday lead to crossing the line.

“If you really want to change the baseball club, instead of barging in like before, submit a petition to the student council citing today’s match results and convene the necessary personnel for a meeting. Even if it takes time, if they think your opinion is justified, everyone will understand.”

“……”

Eric just lowered his head and clenched his fists at my advice.

That’s probably an attitude shown because he can’t accept my opinion in his heart.

Changing a long-held policy takes that much time, and that means less time to invest in the group he wants to change.

“…Gillette.”

Nevertheless, he will eventually comply.

At least when competing, he seriously followed the rules and tried to seriously show his skills to prove to everyone.

“Think carefully until I come back. Whether following the former president’s policy is the right thing to do.”

Watching Eric leave like that, Gillette couldn’t say anything.

Just in silence.

Only staring at Eric’s rough and calloused hands as he left.