Chapter 54

Chapter 54

The Heroine of the 1st Playthrough Remembers My Training.

Episode 54: Mesugaki + Training = M’sugaki (3).

‘Condition is… so-so?’

On the day of the Inter-Grade Tournament, Bianca Beatrice checked her physical condition while stretching.

Her condition wasn’t particularly good or bad, but like most Class 1 students, she didn’t think she would lose.

It was human nature not to think she would lose to a first-year student now that she was in her second year, even though some in Class 1 had beaten second-year students when they were in their first year.

‘But Lucia Uruella will be tough.’

She had confidence against all other first-year students, but the top first-year student, Lucia Uruella, was an exception.

Even among the professors, Lucia was already considered to be at a near-graduation level at the academy.

‘Family, looks, talent…, tsk.’

Bianca clicked her tongue.

As annoying as it was, sometimes you had to admit there were people born with the world’s blessings.

At that moment, she heard the voice of another person blessed by the world.

A small girl with a cute height and pink bobbed hair… who looked like a little girl, Professor Amy.

Professor Amy led the first-year students to the training ground and shouted.

“Come on, move quickly…!”

The distinct short-tongued sound of Professor Amy echoed through the training ground, eliciting giggles from various corners.

“Train hard! And train safely…!”

With both hands on her hips, she tried to look as dignified as possible, but her young appearance made it seem like a child pretending to be an adult.

…Who would think that she possessed the power to be next in line after Professor Loreos?

Apparently, the first-year students thought the same, as one of them shouted out.

“Professor Amy, why are you trying so hard today?”

“I’m not trying hard…! Today is special…! Professor Tristan of Class 2 is absent for unknown reasons…! So, as the most outstanding professor among the staff, I have to oversee Class 2 as well…!”

It was obvious to anyone that the other professors had pawned off the annoying task on the naive Professor Amy, but if she felt proud of it, then so be it.

At that moment, Professor Amy covered her mouth in shock.

“Oh no?! It’s a secret that Professor Tristan is absent…!”

Her eyes widened and she stomped her feet, looking foolish enough to make one question if she was truly a professor.

“Everyone forget what I just said…!”

“So, should we forget that Professor Tristan is absent or that Professor Amy is overseeing Class 2?”

The mischievous question from a male student drew more laughter.

“Eek…!”

Professor Amy’s face turned pale, then red, changing colors rapidly as she stomped her feet in frustration.

“Quiet down! Everyone be quiet…!”

—Silence

In an instant, the chattering students fell silent.

It wasn’t because Class 1 students were particularly obedient.

Professor Amy had forced them to be quiet.

A unique ability that could bring about phenomena through speech, known to be among the most powerful abilities.

Of course, it wasn’t absolute.

Commands that threatened the target’s mind or life, like “Forget” or “Die,” rarely worked, and even simple commands like “Be quiet” could fail due to various factors like magic power, mental strength, or physical strength.

But the ability to cause phenomena through speech was valuable enough to overlook all these drawbacks.

‘…Me too…’

Bianca Beatrice looked down at her calloused palms.

She wondered if things would have been different if she had been born with an ability like that instead of physical enhancement.

‘Useless thoughts…’

Bianca scoffed and shook her head.

…It was a meaningless assumption anyway.

Unique abilities couldn’t change unless you were reborn.

Even though she knew this, she couldn’t help but think about it because Professor Amy, who looked younger than herself, was the only one at Carnea Academy.

“Huff… If you know what happens when you mock a professor, line up now…!”

“…Professor Amy… I bit my tongue because of you…”

“Oh my… I’m not…! It’s your fault for talking, so just shut up and line up quickly…!”

Despite blatantly ignoring the students’ words, she didn’t come off as authoritative but rather cute.

“Huff… the training ground is too high…!”

Struggling to climb up, Professor Amy took out a piece of paper from the small bag she was carrying and read it.

“…So, first-year Isentore Kureta and second-year Bianca Beatrice, come up!”

Bianca’s eyes widened slightly.

To think she’d be called up right from the start.

At that moment, a male first-year student leapt up to the training ground without even using the stairs.

“My opponent is… Huh? Umm… So should I call you senpai? You look too small… I mean, young…”

As soon as Kureta opened his mouth, a cold wind blew through Class 1 of the second year.

-This is bad…

-We’re going to have to clean up a corpse today…

…No one who had pointed out Bianca’s physical condition so far had remained unscathed.

“…”

Bianca didn’t respond and just smiled faintly.

-Crack

But her fist tightened even more firmly.

So far, the win rate of Class 5 first-years is 0%.

They lost all 16 duels.

Some of them fought quite well, but even those who fought well still lost. They were far from seizing victory.

In a way, it’s an expected result.

Second-years were as different from first-years in terms of combat and magic proficiency as the flow of time was honest.

‘It’s the same now…’

Even the Staten in front of him moved differently from the first-years.

He displayed a combat style that was hard to find among first-years, attacking sharply between breaths and enduring light magic with his body.

Personally, it would have been easier to deal with ‘Radnum’, the mage, than ‘Staten’, the warrior, but Staten wasn’t a bad opponent either.

‘…Anyway, I already know all the types and patterns of opponents that come up in the Grade Tournament.’

Staten pulled his left foot back, bent his waist, and slightly lowered his chin.

It was pattern number 4, the stance for a spinning slash.

The spinning slash is an attack where you hold the greatsword with both hands and spin like a windmill.

Once it gained centrifugal force, it was a hard technique to block…

‘You just have to stop it from spinning in the first place.’

「Wind─Blade」

Using magic, I focused on Staten’s ankle and extended a telekinetic force like a string.

Thud-!

Staten endured it with his magically reinforced body instead of blocking the wind blade.

I did this to minimize the time spent on defense and immediately go on the offensive.

However, when Staten took a step to spin, he tripped on the telekinetic force and lost his balance, falling.

“Ugh?!”

…This was the limit of Class 5.

If it were Class 3, they would have maintained their balance in this situation.

And if it were Class 1, they wouldn’t have lost their balance in the first place.

Instead of attacking with magic, I ran toward the fallen Staten.

In this pattern, no matter how much magic I launched, Staten would just hide behind his greatsword.

“Ugh..!”

Staten, who didn’t expect me to approach, hurriedly tried to get up but I was already right in front of him.

Unable to assume a proper stance to swing his sword, Staten abandoned it and swung his fist.

Whoosh-!

I heard the sound of the wind being torn.

A fist imbued with magic power had the hardness of a stone.

For weak mages, even a haphazardly swung fist was a significant threat.

But I trained with Loreos every day.

Compared to Loreos’s punches, this was amateurish.

…Though I still didn’t know why a magic specialist professor was so good at punching.

‘Loreos… Is he really a mage?’

I tilted my head to the right to dodge the incoming punch and extended two fingers toward Staten’s neck.

“…Will you continue?”

I adopted this stance to clearly show that I held his life in my hands and to score more points with the professors.

“Grr…”

Biting his lip for a moment, Staten lowered his head and spoke.

“…I lost.”

The first victory for Class 5 first-years.

“…To think I’d lose to a first-year..”

Staten, with a soul-crushed expression, couldn’t believe he lost to a first-year, but what could he do?

His opponent was me.

-Whoa!-What? He really won?-He beat a second-year?-I believed in him!!

…Watching through the monitor didn’t elicit any special feelings, but the sudden flood of handshake requests was quite embarrassing.

“Good job, Yujin.”

At that moment, Loreos patted my back with a satisfied smile.

“Thanks to you, Professor.”

I bowed my head, giving him appropriate credit.

Partly to be polite and because Loreos’s special training did help.

“Next is Vivian Beatrice…”

Called by name, Vivian walked up the stairs, biting her thumbnail with her head down.

“Can’t lose can’t lose can’t lose….”

…She seemed a bit off, but it was necessary for victory.

Vivian, whose midterm scores were among the lowest, had to show overwhelming growth to join Class 2 like me.

Although her abilities were somewhat limited, she was still strong enough to be among the top second-years.

The reason Vivian’s win rate was so low was purely due to her personality.

So I whispered a magic spell.

‘You must win. If you lose…’

I stopped there, but Vivian would have imagined the rest.

‘How long will it take?’

She would win, but since she hadn’t awakened yet, maybe five minutes? Perhaps even longer.

“Begin…!”

Boom-!

As soon as it started, Vivian blasted the second-year out of the ring…