Fake Breakup (2)

…….

Lilith had conspired to create a pretense of discord between herself and Agnes in order to dispel Machart’s suspicions.

At her sudden provocation, Agnes was momentarily at a loss for words, feeling flustered.

Their agreed-upon plan was for Lilith to pick a fight first, after which Agnes would pretend to get angry, creating the illusion of discord between them.

They had even prearranged the topic of their argument-Agnes’s spirit affinity, about which Lilith had previously criticized her.

But Lilith abruptly changed the subject, now criticizing Agnes’s magic circle, leaving Agnes thoroughly bewildered.

‘Wasn’t the plan to argue about spirit affinity…?’

Though confused by the sudden shift, Agnes calmly tried to discern Lilith’s reasoning for steering the conversation this way.

It couldn’t be that Lilith genuinely disliked her magic circle-even their professor had praised it for minimizing mana loss. Criticizing it now was strange to begin with.

There had to be a reason for the change in topic, and Agnes had an inkling of what it might be.

A memory from their earlier practice session flashed through her mind.

‘Agnes-yang, your spirit affinity is so poor that even low-level spirits can’t digest your mana and end up rejecting it, right?’

‘Yeah, that’s right… I can’t even handle low-level spirits on my own, so if it weren’t for Lilith…’

‘…Wait a second, Agnes-yang. Don’t look so down. You should be refuting me. Say something like, “You’re the one who has nothing going for you besides spirit affinity,” or “I don’t need spirits to crush someone like you.”‘

‘Uh, y-you’re the one who has nothing going for you besides spirit affinity…!’

‘That’s way too forced. Can’t you put a little more anger into it?’

‘I-I don’t know! I did my best! Can’t we just try something else…?’

‘…Fine. I’ll figure out how to work around Agnes-yang’s terrible acting. But the plan to fake discord between us stays.’

Agnes quickly recalled their last conversation when they had devised this plan to feign discord.

She hadn’t expected Lilith to pick a fight over something entirely different from what they had prepared.

From Agnes’s perspective, this was an unforeseen situation-but in a way, it was also a brilliant solution.

Her awkward acting would never fool anyone, so Lilith had switched topics entirely, forcing Agnes to react naturally on the spot.

“Agnes-yang?”

“…H-huh?”

“Why aren’t you saying anything? Was my comment about your magic circle really that shocking?”

“N-no… It’s just…”

“Or did you not understand? Should I spell it out for you? That messy, asymmetrical magic circle of yours with no clear starting point is nothing more than a self-indulgent, impractical waste of time.”

“……?!?!”

When Agnes didn’t react, Lilith doubled down, this time with even harsher words.

The sheer venom in her tone sent a jolt through Agnes.

‘She’s just acting… right?’

But if Lilith hadn’t already harbored these thoughts, how could she come up with such cutting remarks on the spot?

Even though Agnes knew this was all an act, part of her wondered if Lilith truly meant what she was saying. And so, Agnes reflexively fired back.

“Th-that’s ridiculous.”

“Excuse me?”

“Messy, asymmetrical, no clear starting point, and impractical? Or are you just too stupid to understand my magic circle?”

“…What did you say?”

“Even a first-year knows that curved structures in magic circles reduce mana loss and increase power. Calling my circle impractical just proves you’re an idiot. Of course you’d think it’s useless-you can’t even memorize it properly and just copy it by sight. Isn’t that right?”

…Yeah, this was doable.

Even if she was bad at acting, she could hold her own in this kind of argument.

Though she wasn’t entirely sure if Lilith was serious or not… she had no choice but to treat it as real for now.

Otherwise, they’d never fool the academy students-or Machart.

“What’s the point of saving 1 or 2 mana in a spell that only costs 50 to begin with?”

“If you cast it 30 times, you’d get one extra use out of the same mana. Can’t even do basic math?”

“What’s the point of one extra low-level spell? You’d be better off focusing on multi-casting or preparing the next spell instead of obsessing over curves!”

“Why waste effort on something I can draw blindfolded? Your premise is flawed from the start.”

What had begun as a staged argument to deceive Machart slowly turned into an actual debate about magic that Agnes found herself enjoying.

To an outsider, it might look like a heated fight on the verge of ruining their friendship-but in reality, they were passionately discussing magic.

For Agnes, who had few friends, talking about her favorite subject was undeniably fun-even if it was disguised as a bitter quarrel.

…And in her excitement, it was only natural that she’d eventually slip up.

“Why do you struggle with such a simple magic circle? Did all the nutrients meant for your brain go to your chest fat inste-oops.”

“……”

As long as they stuck to magic, no matter how sharp their words got, it was still just a debate in disguise-a heated discussion masked as anger.

But the moment personal attacks entered the mix, it stopped being a debate altogether.

Agnes, flustered by her own careless remark, briefly considered apologizing-but Lilith merely smirked and fired back.

“I-I didn’t mean to say that-“

“Then I suppose Agnes-yang’s flat chest and short stature are because all her nutrients went to her brain instead?”

“…Huh?”

Unfortunately, Agnes had overlooked one crucial fact.

While she could hold her own in a magic debate, Lilith had only been humoring her in that regard-she was already holding back.

But if the argument shifted to anything else, Agnes stood no chance.

“Then again, I suppose it doesn’t apply to Agnes-yang. You have one less area for nutrients to go, so of course your brain works better than mine.”

“Th-that’s… I mean…”

“Come to think of it, maybe Agnes-yang’s short temper is because she lacks the warmth of a generous chest. They say kind people have ‘warm hearts,’ after all. In that sense, Agnes-yang must have the coldest, most unfeeling chest of all.”

“L-Lilith…? S-stop joking around…”

“My apologies. I momentarily forgot about our… physical differences.”

Lilith then crossed her arms, deliberately lifting her ample chest-leaving Agnes dizzy from the relentless verbal assault.

What the hell was this? This one-sided, infuriatingly unfair conversation.

Just moments ago, they were having a magic debate disguised as an argument-how did it turn into this?

Sure, Agnes had slipped up first, but did Lilith really have to go this far?

Weren’t they friends? Why was she saying these things?

While Agnes was suffering in real time, Lilith continued her merciless verbal onslaught without a care.

Truthfully, Lilith hadn’t planned to take it this far. She knew better than anyone how sensitive Agnes was about her height and chest.

She had intended to avoid such low blows-but Agnes’s accidental mention of “chest fat” had opened the floodgates.

Since Agnes had brought up physical flaws first, Lilith took it as permission to retaliate in kind-and in this kind of battle, the loser was decided before they even spoke.

Naturally, Agnes never stood a chance.

As the argument devolved into a one-sided beatdown, Agnes’s frustration grew-until Lilith’s final remark became the last straw.

“Now that I think about it, I get why your magic circle is so full of curves. Since your body has none, you must compensate by overloading your spells with them-“

“SHUT UUUUUUUP, YOU FAT-COW BITCH!!!”

And just like that, Agnes exploded.

Completely forgetting the original purpose of this conversation.