Ch.271266 – Bluffing

We arrived at Hotel Aquila, owned by the Altair Foundation, and collected our suitcases from the bus luggage compartment.

Aquila must mean eagle in Latin, so I wonder if Altair comes from the star Altair in the Eagle constellation?

Sure enough, a massive eagle emblem was etched into the glass revolving door.

“Name! NoName-Name-Name!”

The second-year friends who had departed earlier called my name loudly from inside the hotel lobby.

“What’s up? Why aren’t you guys in your rooms yet?”

The bus carrying the elementary division kids should have left about 10 minutes ago.

“We waited for you, hehe.”

“Let’s go up together!”

Yuna and Haru waved their keycards in front of my face.

They’re such oddly affectionate kids, making a big deal about going up together.

I gently patted their heads, and we all walked together down the quiet hallway.

“This is my first time in a hotel. It’s so amazing! Wow, what’s that?”

Yuna exclaimed dramatically, pointing at the ceiling.

Following her finger, I looked up to see an antique chandelier hanging there.

“That’s a chandelier—”

“Wow! Look, Name! The elevator door here is so soft! It feels like dog fur.”

Yuna didn’t seem particularly interested in my answer, so I just smiled back at her.

“Once the seniors finish checking in, it’ll get crowded here, so let’s go in and unpack quickly.”

“Okay!”

Ding-dong—

[7th floor.]

“What room are you guys in? We’re in 711.”

“Hmm… Name and I are in 713! Haru and Jihye are in 715? Looks like we’re next door to each other.”

Though I’m participating as part of the middle school division, given my age, I was assigned to room with someone my own grade.

“I’ll be in your care for the next two weeks, roommate Seo Yu-na.”

“Same here!”

There wasn’t much to unpack, really.

Thanks to the hotel’s laundry service, we didn’t need to bring many clothes, and towels and toiletries were mostly provided.

“Name, I brought these from home. Want some chocolate?”

“Yes, just one. Thanks.”

Meanwhile, Yuna seemed to have packed everything but the kitchen sink—her suitcase was completely full.

Snacks, stuffed animals, novels, and more kept emerging endlessly.

While she finished unpacking, I opened the window to admire the distant view of Altair Academy.

If Cephiron Academy has a modern feel, Altair Academy, with that chandelier and all, has an overall elegant atmosphere.

[Our student council identified three main factors that made Altair Academy’s victory inevitable. The first of those is ‘magic registration’.]

The first strategy proposed by Student Council President Shin Jin-ho.

The gist was to create confusion for our opponents during the “magic registration” procedure for the competition.

Monday and Friday.

Twice in total, each academy submits the magic that students from each grade will use to the organizing committee in advance.

Then the organizing committees from both sides verify each other’s magic while analyzing strategies and developing counter-tactics.

I imagine our homeroom teacher, Jacqueline Carroll, is currently with the organizing committee.

“Yuna, have you decided what magic you’ll use in this competition?”

“Me? Still thinking about it. We have until this evening to submit it, right?”

“Yeah.”

For elementary second-graders, they participate in the competition with three 1st-circle magic spells.

On Monday, each student submits up to five magic spells, and on Friday, they select three from those approved by the organizing committee.

Unlike middle and high school divisions, elementary students are still inexperienced with magic, so the types of magic they can use are limited.

“Yuna, since it’s just registration… how about I teach you one of my innate magic spells and you use that instead?”

“Your innate magic? You mean Adera? I don’t know how to use that at all!”

Elementary students are definitely too young for bluffing.

As she said, Adera is magic that requires a high level of proficiency.

It would be difficult to use at the elementary level, but if cast properly, its power is such that the other side couldn’t simply ignore it.

“It’s okay, I’ll just give you a rough explanation of what kind of magic it is.”

“Hmm… alright. It’s not completely lying! I’ll learn that magic someday anyway!”

“Yes. Meanwhile, I’m going to meet with the seniors, so wait here quietly, okay?”

I think I’ll try to persuade the elementary third through sixth graders first.

I wonder how Altair would respond if we claimed that all academy students know how to use Adera.

I left the hotel room with a more relaxed stride.

At the end of the corridor, I quietly checked the silently rotating CCTV camera and moved my steps quietly.

Bluffing requires acting above all else—I wonder if our student council president is any good at method acting?

* * *

[We, the participants of the 2051 Seoul Regional Academy Competition for Friendship and Exchange, as students of Cephiron, which has led magical education in the Republic of Korea, pledge with pride and dignity as follows. First—]

As Altair Academy’s oath ended and Cephiron Academy’s oath was about to be read, a discussion with no end in sight had already been going on for two hours in the organizing committee meeting room on the second basement floor.

“Adera is too dangerous! How can you allow such magic to be used in an elementary division competition! It’s classified as A-grade magic even in Japan! That should tell you how dangerous it is!”

“I believe No Name’s innate magic received an A-grade not because it’s dangerous, but because the magic itself was highly rated for its completeness and expandability. Even though it’s just a 1st-circle magic, its applications are endless, which is why Japan recognized it as such.”

“It seems Cephiron is really determined this year, but Altair absolutely cannot accept this. For the safety of our students.”

The stubborn assertions of the Altair Academy teachers were not going to be easily overturned.

“Listen!”

BANG-!

Unable to stand this any longer, Student Council President Shin Jin-ho clenched his fist and slammed it hard on the table.

“Safety? Did someone who talks so much about safety teach barrier magic to middle school students last year? Thanks to that, our students suffered from disorientation for a while, and your student was rushed to the emergency room with mana exhaustion after the match. Have you completely erased that from your memory?”

“That was… middle school…”

“In Japan, Adera has been used in numerous dueling competitions, including the Emperor’s Cup, without a single injury. Why? Because it delivers predictable impacts. The referees can easily intervene in the match with mana blockers.”

Although there was always a risk of injury even in matches with aura barriers, the student council president argued for Adera’s safety based on the fact that the magic’s inherent delay time allows safety personnel to easily intervene.

“Much more dangerous magic has appeared many times before, so I don’t understand why you’re reacting so sensitively only to Adera. Perhaps you’re actually afraid of this magic…?”

“What are you saying! It’s just that since this magic has only been around for two months, we need to be careful.”

“I think that’s Altair’s problem. There’s still a week until the competition, so there’s plenty of time to prepare, isn’t there? Right?”

“…!”

The student council president smiled slyly.

He returned the exact words, without changing a single letter, that Altair Academy had said last year.

“There, I’ve stamped it. Are you satisfied now, our Cephiron Academy Student Council President? Huh?”

The red-faced grade head stamped the document forcefully and angrily fluttered the paper.

As the student council president was about to add another comment, the teacher next to him pulled his sleeve.

“Good job, Jin-ho. That’s enough, sit down now. Teacher Choi, please lower your voice and calm down. We’ve only done the elementary division, and the sun’s already setting. I’m getting hungry, so let’s take a short break and finish reviewing the middle school magic before going to eat.”

At the intervention of Cephiron Academy’s high school grade head, the organizing committee entered a temporary lull.

After emptying a small water bottle, Altair’s Teacher Choi Byung-gun noticed a young woman doodling in the corner on the opposite side.

She’s NoName’s homeroom teacher.

“Hmm… you there, Jackie-chan? What was your name again?”

“Ah, yes. Jacqueline Carroll.”

“Right, Teacher Jacqueline. When did you teach such magic to second-graders? They would need to know coordinate transformation and have some understanding of matrices to use it. Are you sure these little kids can actually use it properly?”

The Altair Academy teachers, having regained their composure, looked at Jacqueline Carroll with suspicious eyes.

Has the bluff already been exposed? Jackie decided to play innocent.

“They received a lot of help from Name. She’s so passionate about magic that she kindly taught not only the children participating in the competition but all the students in our class.”

“Is that so…?”

“I wish you could have seen our class students practicing every lunch break.”

“Well, I’m not questioning the quality of Cephiron students. I was just curious.”

They still looked skeptical, tilting their heads.

After the elementary magic review was completed, the coordinators from both sides went to their respective lounges to catch their breath.

“What do you think? We approved it, but… I can’t help thinking this is just a bluff…”

“After Cephiron pushed for two hours? What if it actually appears? In the Emperor’s Cup, Adera has never lost. Nothing but another Adera can counter it.”

“That’s what I’m saying. Sigh… analyzing countermeasures seems like a waste of time if it’s a bluff… but leaving it alone makes me uneasy…”

This is all because of that child named NoName.

The fact that she developed innate magic at that age already shows she was born under a lucky star, but the problem is that this magic has an invincible reputation in Japan, which is giving them a headache.

“So, did Name do anything unusual?”

“She was seen wandering around various parts of the hotel since before the oath ceremony.”

“Ah, so it might be true after all?”

“Let’s make minimal preparations, Teacher Choi.”

“Yes. There’s no magic without a counter. Since kids are using it, it can’t be perfect.”

After the break, the teachers returned to the meeting room with the long table.

Student Council President Shin Jin-ho, whose expression had softened compared to earlier, welcomed them warmly.

“I apologize deeply for losing my temper earlier, Teacher Choi Byung-gun.”

“No, it’s fine. This is all part of what we do in the organizing committee.”

“We still have a long way to go with the middle school division, so I ask for your cooperation again.”

“The middle school division may have unlimited magic use, but don’t they always use the same predictable magic? Haha, it usually ends in 15 minutes—”

“No. This year will be a bit different.”

Shin Jin-ho picked up a mountain of documents from the floor and distributed them to the Altair side.

He couldn’t hide the satisfied smile on his face.

THUD-!

The low resonance of wood changed the atmosphere in the meeting room.

“What is all this?”

“This is the list of magic that our middle school division will use in this academy competition. We request prompt approval from Altair Academy.”

The teacher who glanced at the papers frowned and said:

“Stop joking, Student Council President. How can all this—”

“It’s not all. Please look carefully.”

At Shin Jin-ho’s words, the teacher returned to the first page and turned to the next.

“NoName?”

“Yes. Somehow she ended up participating in the competition as part of the middle school division.”

“Oh. Middle school division. You’re quite confident, aren’t you?”

Name competing in the middle school division was great news for Altair Academy.

They had long given up on winning against the second-grade elementary students since she had already reached an untouchable level for her age group, but moving up a few grades made her much more manageable.

But what on earth was this ridiculous thickness of documents?

“Don’t tell me… she knows how to cast all these spells by herself?”

[Name: NoName (No Name)]

[Date of Birth: 43/06/11]

[Please approve the use of the following 2nd-circle or lower magic: Total 483]

The Altair Academy teacher’s eyes were about to pop out like a frog’s.

Now everything was clear. The Cephiron Academy student council had come with a strategy to disrupt the organizing committee.

“Don’t you know that falsifying magic use permits can result in disqualification from the competition, depending on the circumstances?”

Meanwhile, Student Council President Shin Jin-ho barely managed to suppress his laughter by covering his mouth.

“We tried to stop her midway. Please review it carefully and let us know by tomorrow morning.”

* * *

“This is bad…”

“How…”

“I knew this would happen.”

“Sigh… Name…”

On the first basement floor of Hotel Aquila, there was a small dueling arena.

It wasn’t spacious enough to run around freely, but not so small that you had to move carefully—just the right size.

After the oath ceremony, with time to spare, we immediately went down to the basement to find something fun to do.

We watched others duel, and I also said I wanted to fight once.

“Ughhhh…”

This boy lying spread-eagle right below me with his eyes rolled back is probably a sixth-grader from elementary.

“Are you okay, senior? That must have hurt. I’ll count for you, so please get up now. Aren’t you embarrassed with so many people watching?”

He was from Cephiron Academy, same as me.

I definitely thought he was from Altair.