episode_0084

Hamon Yankov.

The legitimate successor of the Yankov family, and the overall top student in the Knight Department, boasting overwhelmingly powerful martial prowess among the second-year students.

Rumor had it that Hamon’s level was close to Master. In terms of wizards, he was a High 6th Tier, a talent capable of easily performing more than his share even if thrown into the battlefield immediately. He hadn’t yet stepped into the early stage of Master, comparable to the 7th Tier, but he was likely a talent who would achieve the early stage of Master when graduation was imminent.

In vulgar terms, he was a monster. Just as Ashel showed immense talent limited to magic, Hamon was a collection of talent with a particular aptitude for martial talent (武才).

Perhaps because of that, after the matchup bracket was released. Many people started talking about the spar between the two.

“A spar between the top first-year and the top second-year. If you think about it, isn’t it a fight between representatives of the golden generation?”

“That’s about right.”

“Surprisingly, no one is interested in the spar between the third-year and fourth-year students. Is this right? Shouldn’t we establish authority as seniors?”

“If you do that, you’ll hear people calling you the mediocre generation.”

“How upsetting.”

Generally, the third and fourth-year students chattered like this. They were interested, but only that much.

However, most of the first and second-year students, who were the main participants in the spar, became excited. It was literal.

“Down with the freshmen! Down with the mages!”

“It is a truth written on the murals of the Magic Kingdom that swordsmen are superior to wizards. No objections accepted. Get lost.”

“Hamon Yankov, is he a god?”

“You crazy bastards.”

The last remark was made by Hamon himself. After knocking out his classmates who had rudely barged into the first-year Magic Department classroom one by one, he offered apologies to the professor and the first-year students before disappearing.

‘That’s youth.’

Ashel saw the scene and burst into laughter without any particular thought.

But anywhere, anytime, there were always people who twisted the truth.

“Ashel laughed! He laughed because he was furious!”

“What?”

In fact, Ashel didn’t have many friends at the academy. The people he did know were mostly those who had gotten caught up in some incident with him. Only Grace and Celine had simply become friends. Relationships with the others had started through being involved in things like the entrance exam or assignments.

Other friends besides them? None. Unfortunately, Ashel wasn’t someone who proactively built friendships.

Furthermore, after classes ended, he would immediately hole himself up in his dormitory to research magic and wouldn’t come out. To avoid being disturbed, he would even set up multiple layers of spells to ignore all kinds of noise and vibration.

Thanks to this, Ashel’s reputation became quite strangely twisted. The rumor was that after encountering a necromancer during a group assignment, he had gone mad with magic. A prime example of a wizard who was only kind to those he had befriended before, and endlessly cold and distant to everyone else!

That was Ashel among the first-year students. Such a person, looking down at Hamon, burst into laughter.

What did that mean?

“Ashel looked at Senior Hamon and laughed! He decided to kill the senior! It’s war! Waaaar!”

“What? War?”

“A fight? A fight? A fight? A fight?”

One student who happened to see Ashel’s smile spread the rumor like that. And the rumor spread rapidly everywhere, almost like lightning. Thanks to this, Ashel currently gained the frame of being ‘the crazy bastard who goes around boasting he’ll half-kill a senior’ at the academy. It was a glorious title no one else at the academy had received.

“Ah.”

Of course, the person concerned didn’t like it. Regardless. The freshmen, who would never miss an event happening in their boring academy life, immediately flocked in droves and waved signs they had made themselves beyond the window of the practical training room where Hamon was having class.

[Down with the 2nd years!]

[Ashel: Hamon Yankov? He was the weakest person I’ve faced.]

[Wizards are far superior beings to ignorant warriors, and this is even depicted on the murals of the Magic Kingdom. Objections are accepted. Come at me, you bastards.]

Because of the unwanted demonstration, Ashel’s title was elevated by another level.

In short, he became the biggest bastard in the world who declared he would kill a senior. Nevertheless, the reason the seniors didn’t bother him was thanks to the pure white lightning that still showed no sign of disappearing from the sky. Overwhelming violence ironically took away violence from them.

Conversely, it granted Ashel violence. He sat in the club room, sipping the tea Rayne made for him with a face like he’d bitten into excrement. Rayne trembled her shoulders and even stammered.

“D-Does it suit your taste? I-I didn’t make you uncomfortable by making tea for nothing, r-ri-right?”

“……Please stop acting, Senior.”

Ashel said with a deep sigh. Only then did Rayne let out a little laugh and compose herself.

“Caught me. But the rumors lately are chilling, aren’t they~ Word is you’re gnashing your teeth, intent on killing our top student, so of course, as a fellow second-year, I can’t help but be scared~”

“I have no intention of killing him, and I’m not gnashing my teeth. You know that, so why are you doing this, really.”

“It’s fun.”

Damn it.

Ashel put down his teacup and leaned back against the backrest. Just then, Celine, who had finished her body acting practice, threw her body beside him. Ashel naturally received her body with telekinesis magic.

Celine, who had smoothly landed on the sofa, immediately began to grumble.

“Die! I’m dying! It’s hard!”

“It’s the club you chose. Persevere with sheer willpower.”

“Then die!”

This time, the target of ‘die’ was different. Ashel lightly dodged the punch flying towards him and leaned his upper body forward.

“Senior Rayne, are there any seniors in the second year who have bad feelings towards me?”

“Hmm…… Probably not? You don’t have any contact with them in the first place, do you?”

“But why is the rumor mill like this?”

“Well, this rumor is entirely the first-years’ fault, isn’t it……”

“Strictly speaking, the second-years started it first, but.”

“The second-years’ thing ended as a simple happening when Hamon directly intervened. Not the first-years.”

“No, I don’t even need to explain anything in the first place. Why would I explain something I didn’t do?”

“Because the public thinks differently?”

“……”

There was nothing to say. Ashel sighed deeply and leaned his body back again. Celine, who had wiped her sweat roughly, lay down using his thigh as a pillow.

“So what are you going to do? Are you really going to kill him?”

“Are you crazy?”

“Saying ‘are you crazy’ to a fragile girl seems a bit harsh.”

“Be quiet.”

Ashel firmly grabbed Celine’s lips, making them like a duck’s beak. Celine struggled, making a burr sound, but he neatly ignored her and fell into thought.

Frankly, the twisted rumor didn’t bother him that much. He didn’t like it, but explaining it now felt strange. Meeting Hamon separately and talking might be different, but there seemed to be no need for a public apology right now.

So, he thought about the spar itself, not the rumor.

Hamon Yankov was strong. He had never seen him fight directly, but according to the rumors, he was. An unparalleled genius who few third-year students could contend with, and someone even fourth-year students found challenging. That was the academy students’ evaluation of Hamon.

Of course, it was necessary to filter it to some extent. As Ashel’s case showed, rumors tended to become increasingly exaggerated as they passed from mouth to mouth. There was enough possibility that the stories about Hamon were mixed with exaggeration.

‘That said, I don’t plan to be careless.’

Regardless, the rumor that he was strong meant there was a reason he was perceived that way. It was enough reason to be wary.

It felt like he could probably win even just going at it in his current state. However, Ashel wanted to secure victory more definitively.

It couldn’t be helped. Just recalling the people he had fought recently, they were all formidable figures. After fighting people significantly stronger than himself like that, he finally had a spar scheduled with a swordsman of a similar level after a very long time. It was a very good opportunity to prove what position he held within the same level.

So, he had no intention of doing just enough. The spar was scheduled for a week later. During that period, he felt greedy to become even slightly stronger.

‘Researching magic while sitting still is good, but…… it’s better to draw samples from that. Using magic directly on living creatures to enhance the sense of magic is the best.’

It wasn’t for nothing that people said real combat was the best training.

However, creating a combat environment with someone at the academy wasn’t that easy. He could ask others for spar, but honestly, there were few people in the same grade who were outstanding enough to gain meaningful results through sparring.

At most, it was just Grace. The rest didn’t have much effect on Ashel.

‘I can’t keep sparring only with Grace either. It’s tiring for both of us.’

So, what should he do?

“How about going to the Monster Research Club?”

Rayne answered immediately after hearing Ashel’s concern. Ashel tilted his head.

“Monster Research Club?”

“Yeah. It’s a club that gathers information on captured monsters, researches, breeds, and observes them. There’s also research to record how they look when they die, so they regularly deal with monsters by giving variables. If you offer to deal with them, they’ll probably accept right away.”

“……Just from hearing about it, it sounds like a club with a lot of incidents and accidents.”

“That’s right. They’re probably the club that’s caused the most accidents at the academy.”

Rayne took a sip of tea.

“Still, the monsters are quite varied, so many people go there to fight. It’s not dangerous either.”

“Didn’t you just say they have the most accidents?”

“That’s because the monsters often escape their enclosures~ The combat itself is fine.”

Is that really fine? Ashel had a very common-sense question but just let it pass. He didn’t particularly want to think about things like that.

That’s when it happened. Celine, who had been struggling, started pinching the back of Ashel’s hand hard. In silent protest for him to release her hand immediately, Ashel chuckled and freed her lips.

“Phew! You bastard!”

A punch flew out naturally.

*Ting.*

It was blocked by a shield naturally.

“Aack!”

Celine shrieked. Then she caught her breath fiercely on her own, and lay back down, resting her head on Ashel’s thigh. Annoying was annoying, and comfortable was comfortable. Celine had a very practical personality.

“Apologize! How dare you bother my precious lips? Apologize!”

“I’m sorry.”

“I forgive you.”

“……Are you two acting?”

Rayne, who had been watching the two of them, muttered. The two smiled awkwardly.

Ashel also felt that he had become significantly closer to Celine lately.

The turning point was likely revealing that they had both grown up in the back alleys. Thanks to this, Celine’s words when addressing Ashel started to be heavily laced with coarse language. It wasn’t that severe, but compared to a few weeks ago when she barely used any, it was true that it had increased.

Ashel didn’t see this as entirely bad. Becoming closer with a wizard he was friendly with was something to be happy about rather than something to avoid. Ashel had felt a certain closeness to Celine from the beginning anyway.

It wasn’t for nothing that there were connections from school, region, or blood. Among the wizards who had struggled persistently at the bottom, an inexplicable bond had taken root.

Was it because of that? Celine offered words to Ashel that a Magic Tower wizard would never utter.

“If you need someone to spar with, come to the Aurora Magic Tower. There will be plenty of people to face.”

“What?”

The reaction was from Rayne. She widened her eyes and turned her head towards Celine.

“Ce-Celine. Do you know what it means for a Magic Tower wizard to invite a non-Magic Tower wizard to the Tower……?”

“……? I don’t know. My seniors and master didn’t tell me such things?”

“Why, why……?”

“I’m not sure either…… But why? Is there a reason I shouldn’t invite them?”

Celine asked back with pure curiosity. Rayne pondered how to answer here.

“Ah, no~”

The deliberation was short. She smiled vaguely and sipped her tea.

Sometimes, there are times when you have to face and solve problems directly. So, instead of telling them about the Magic Tower’s rules, Rayne vaguely glossed over it and left the spot. After greeting her as she left the club room, Ashel and Celine plopped back down on the sofa.

“So what are you going to do? Are you going to the research club? Or are you coming to the Magic Tower?”

“The Magic Tower isn’t on academy grounds, is it?”

“Hehehe, of course it is! The academy branch built a long time ago is still there. There are a lot of people.”

“……Really?”

Ashel muttered with an interested expression. Celine scratched the back of his hand with her fingers, whispering like a succubus.

“Come to the Magic Tower. You know? I’ve made a bit of a name for myself in the Tower? My master is also a great person. So come. I’ll make sure to treat you well.”

“……”

Ashel was silent and thought for a moment, then soon opened his mouth.