episode_0018

Arthur, who was reading a book alone in the library, raised his head and looked at the clock.

The clock hand points to lunchtime.

After putting away the book I was reading, I got up from my seat and headed out of the library.

‘You said you’d wait at the training grounds at this time, right..?’

Arthur’s footsteps headed towards the knighthood.

As we walked in, several buildings began to come into view.

“They all look similar…”

But since it was a knight school, I couldn’t find where the training ground was because all the buildings looked similar even though I looked at the signs.

As I continued to look around, I happened to see someone who appeared to be a student from the journalism department passing by.

“Excuse me?”

“Yes?”

“Where is the first-year training camp?”

At Arthur’s words, the woman pointed to a large building with her hand.

“That’s the building!”

“But do you have a girlfriend…”

“Thank you for letting me know~”

Arthur said his thanks and headed towards the building, humming a tune. The woman behind him seemed to be speaking to Arthur again, but Arthur, unable to hear her, quickly moved away from her.

… … …

As we entered the building that said “First Year Only Training Center,” we could see Alice sweating and exercising from afar.

“Ariㅡ”

Arthur tried to call out to Aris loudly in excitement, but he saw another ‘man’ approaching Aris.

Arthur was watching the situation between the two while hiding behind the wall, and the man with the flushed face said something to Alice and started giving her a letter.

Arthur, who was watching that scene, began to feel anxious.

“No way… You’re not going to accept that, are you?”

But contrary to Arthur’s expectations, he saw Alice receiving a letter from a man. And he even saw a man who liked Alice receiving the letter.

After that, the two could be seen talking for a while, and after a while, the man said goodbye and started to leave first.

After confirming that the man had left the building, Arthur went straight to Alice.

“Aris..”

“..Huh? Arthur, you came so quickly?”

Arthur, slightly angry at Alice’s calm appearance, began to speak aggressively.

“But who was that guy earlier? They seemed to be on really good terms…?”

Alice, who didn’t know Arthur had seen it, looked slightly embarrassed.

“That…suddenly came to me and confessed…”

“So…?”

“Of course I refused because I already had a boyfriend.”

“What’s that letter?”

“Ah..! That’s a lover’s letter, but I feel bad not accepting it, and he said it’s okay if we stay friends..”

Alice, who saw that Arthur’s expression was rapidly worsening, quickly took the letter she had received out of her pocket.

-Boooosh! Booosh!

The letter was torn to pieces right before Arthur’s eyes. Looking at Arthur’s expression again, he could see that his mood had eased a little.

But Alice, sensing that the mood was turning sour again, quickly began to change the subject.

“Then shall we go get some lunch? I heard lunch is delicious today?”

“Okay..”

Alice let out a sigh of relief and took Arthur’s hand as they headed to the restaurant.

As I was walking to the restaurant, Alice spoke to me.

“Arthur? Look at me for a second.”

He looked up at Arthur’s face and began to touch the area under his eyes with his hands. At the same time, Alice’s expression began to harden.

“Who are you?”

“…What are you talking about?”

“Who made you cry? Do you know that the area under your eyes is puffy right now?”

“Who’s harassing you? Ha… What kind of a bitchㅡ”

Arthur, embarrassed, quickly began to explain.

“No!! That…That’s why I kept yawning while reading a book! I’m tired from class today..”

“Really? You’re not lying, are you?”

“Of course! Nothing happened!”

Arthur’s eyes were slowly avoiding eye contact with his slightly trembling body. There were many suspicious points, but Aristo decided to believe Arthur’s strong denial.

“… ”

“If someone is harassing you, should you tell me? I’ll take care of it.”

“Eek! What are you dealing with!”

So the two of them started to chat again, and after a while, they arrived at the restaurant, ordered their menus, and sat down together at a suitable table.

-Wow!

After a while, the sound of wheels rolling reached their ears, and when they looked to their side, they saw the golem doing odd jobs at the academy holding the food they had ordered.

The two began to eat the food the golem had brought, and Arthur spoke first.

“How about the College of Journalism?”

“It wasn’t anything special.. We sparred a lot, but everyone was so weak that it didn’t help at all.”

“That…really? I heard there’s a kid from that duke’s family. How was he?”

“There wasn’t much of a difference.”

“You probably won’t be able to beat me even if you spend your whole life? The techniques are too orthodox. Usually, it’s hard to beat someone stronger than yourself with those swordsmanship techniques.”

“…”

“Unlike me, you are always…”

But Alice, who was focused on eating, didn’t hear Arthur speaking softly.

“How was it for you? It was the magic class I always looked forward to.”

Arthur’s expression became slightly worse, but Alice didn’t notice.

“…It was fun, I got to see magic I’ve never seen before.”

“Really? That’s good.”

At that moment, Arthur heard whispering around him.

“Huh? Isn’t that guy the top student in the journalism department?”

“Oh! That’s right. You were walking around alone all day, and now you’re eating with another kid?”

“Who’s the guy with you? If he’s a guy, is he from the magic department?”

“That seems right, but isn’t that guy wearing a blindfold? The worst talent in the magic department, as acknowledged by the professor…”

-Tak!

But the rest of the story was not heard because Arthur put down his spoon forcefully.

“Aris? I have something to do, so I’ll go first..”

“Huh? Got it.”

Arthur left the restaurant again as if he was running away, leaving Alice behind while she was eating.

… … …

Arthur went to the class location to attend his afternoon class.

Entering the building, unlike the classrooms with desks and chairs, there was a wide open space like the training grounds of the College of Engineering.

As I stood there quietly waiting among the other students, their gazes began to turn to one side.

-Thump thump.

A woman wearing a black uniform and holding a small wand in one hand stopped in front of the students.

“Hello kids?”

“I’m Adele, and I’ll be teaching you basic combat magic this semester!”

A youthful appearance that doesn’t look like she’s in her late 20s, a cute appearance, and even a way of speaking that matches it.

But none of the students looked down on Adele.

This is because the people who teach combat magic at the academy are always battle magicians who fight on the front lines, the border between the Demon World and the Empire, and they come here in turns to feel like they are on vacation.

In other words, if Adele’s skills were ranked, she would be ranked within the top 100 battle magicians in the empire.

A small light began to glow from Adele’s wand.

“Then, let’s test everyone’s skills~”

In an instant, the empty lot was transformed into a coliseum.

“This kind of space so easily..?”

“Is this a battle mage…”

Exclamations of admiration were heard from all around, and at the same time, a protective shield appeared over all the students.

“I’ll explain the rules first. Your opponents are random and it’s a one-on-one match. Since you’ve put a protective spell on your bodies, if you take more than a certain amount of damage, you lose! And you can surrender, but… I think it’s better not to..?”

“The weapon is over there, so bring it now~”

Arthur also looked in the direction of the weapons as Adele had said. He saw dozens of Academy wands arranged on the wall.

But Arthur’s gaze was directed elsewhere. Right next to the wand were the swords.

Arthur, who could not use magic, pulled out a sword similar in size to the longsword he always used.

Adele looked at Arthur like that with interest.

‘Is it by any chance a magician? The difficulty level is so high that it’s probably impossible for a student to do it…? I’m really looking forward to it!’

However, unlike Adele’s reaction, the reaction of the students around her was not good.

“What is he doing with his sword?”

“Did you come to the wrong department of journalism? Hehe.”

“Don’t you know what real shame is?”

Arthur’s hand holding the sword began to tighten.

-Ouch!

“Quiet! Then I’ll start now.”

As soon as Adele finished speaking, she moved her wand, and two of the students teleported onto the stage.

“You know that in real life, your opponent won’t wait for you? As soon as you teleport, it starts!”

At Adele’s voice, the two students immediately picked up their wands and began to use their magic.

Arthur watched the battle between the two closely. In a circular arena with a diameter of 50 meters, all the magic used was the attributeless mana bullet ‘Magic Missile’ and basic attribute magic, as expected of beginners.

The game was a turn-based game, with each player exchanging spells.

That’s when the balance began to break. As magic missiles flew at each other, one side moved its body greatly to evade.

“Huh..?”

But where I moved to evade, a fireball was flying towards me.

-Beep!

“The winner is Anthony! He’s really great from the first game? Even the double-chant and prediction are really great!”

“Thank you.”

“The match will continue in a tournament format, so rest in the stands!”

Adele moved her wand, and the two students were teleported into the audience.

“So who’s next? Yay!”

The matches continued like that.

At that moment, Arthur saw someone familiar.

‘Fabian..’

Fabian was summoned to the stadium, and his opponent’s face was distorted horribly.

“Ha…no luck.”

Fabian held out his wand.

“Magic Missile.”

At the same time as he spoke, three magic missiles were fired behind Fabian’s back, and although the opponent evaded two of the magic missiles, he ended up getting hit by the remaining one.

-Beep!

“The winner is Fabian! He can do the triple-spear so easily, he really is the Schneider family! Hehe.”

“Then what’s next..? Yay!”

As Adele spoke, Arthur’s vision began to change.

Arthur, who had moved to the stadium, checked his opponent.

‘The distance is about 40 meters. It doesn’t seem like a famous family, so you just need to be careful with magic missiles and attribute magic.’

But the opponent was looking down on Arthur.

“Should I finish this right away, or give you some time to surrender?”

Arthur, ignoring his opponent’s words, pointed his longsword downward and drew a circle on the ground with himself as the reference point. This was a method that Arthur devised to compensate for his weakness, as he was unable to sense distance. However, to his opponent, it looked like child’s play.

“What? Did you come here to play with pictures?”

-Pishung!

Magic missiles flying at the same time.

Arthur’s left eye took in both the flying magic missile and the line below it. The moment the magic missile entered the line, Arthur’s head began to turn rapidly.

‘Target the head, dodge by taking a step to the left.’

-Pishuung!

Arthur heard the sound of a magic missile passing by his head.

“Oh..? You’re lucky. This time I’ll really finish you off.”

-Pishung!

The magic missile flies in again.

‘Target the torso, dodge by taking three steps to the right.’

Arthur’s reaction speed and judgment beyond genius helped him evade.

Only then did the opponent sense something was wrong and began to continuously fire magic missiles.

“What difference will it make if you do that? Let’s see how long you can avoid it.”

-Pishung!

-Pishung!

-Pishung!

The opponent’s continued attacks and Arthur’s evasion.

At that moment, Arthur began to see something different from before.

‘What is that..?’

A heterogeneous part seen in the flying magic missile.

Arthur immediately put his thoughts into action.

As soon as he crossed the line, Arthur swung his longsword. A clean diagonal slash from bottom to top.

At the same time, the magic missile was cut by the sword and disappeared.

“!!!”

“D, dispel?”

Arthur ran forward after confirming that his bewildered opponent had stopped, and upon seeing this, his opponent began to shoot magic again.

-Sack!

A magic missile that dispels at the same time as a line is drawn quickly on the ground.

After the same thing happened several times, the distance between Arthur and his opponent was soon less than 10 meters.

“Block this too!”

As soon as the other person spoke, Arthur saw a large fireball flying before his eyes.

‘Of course… there’s also a fireball.’

-Wow!

The sword swinging from his hand, the fireball as well as the magic missile were seen disappearing into Arthur’s diagonal slash as they crossed the line.

Arthur, who arrived in front of his opponent after cutting the fireball, swung his sword towards his torso, and at the same time, he saw his opponent’s protective magic break before his eyes.

-Beep!!

“The winner is Arthur!!”

Arthur felt victorious for the first time in his life, having achieved victory solely through his own skills.