episode_0015

Leon headed to the center of the city, his magical powers completely hidden at a normal human level by Bima’s bracelet.

The streets in the city center, which I walked for the first time in a long time, were still crowded.

As we walked towards the outskirts, past the magic tower where Arpina’s laboratory was located, a gray Gothic stone building appeared before our eyes.

It was different from the Matop Tower, which had a single tall spire standing tall.

Unlike the neat outer walls of the pagoda, it was a large building with several connected spires with elaborate decorations.

A large area was formed around the prominent building.

It was Widia Academy.

At the entrance, people who were older than Leon, but still had a young feel, walked around with books tucked under their arms.

There weren’t that many of them, but it was probably a holiday.

Leon looked around curiously as he passed through the main gate and headed towards the large circular stadium located on one side of the Academy grounds, just as Leah had told him.

As I entered the observation deck, I found people sitting around huddled together.

‘I thought it would be full, but it’s not that full?’

Since it was a match between individual students who had not yet entered the academy, it seemed like it did not receive much attention from the academy students.

Still, it’s not like there were no people at all.

At the very front of the viewing area, there were people sitting in a row who looked like high-ranking magicians.

‘It seems like this is a duel that attracts more attention from high-ranking magicians than from students.’

It seemed like a duel was taking place between their personal disciples.

Arpina was also sitting among them.

Leon sat in the empty seat at the back.

And soon the sparring began.

The training took place in a more serene atmosphere than Leon had expected.

Two disciples from the stadium came up, greeted each other politely, and began to spar.

Most of them looked noticeably younger than the Academy students.

Occasionally, I would see 2nd-level disciples sparring with each other, but most of them were 1st-level.

Leah said that it takes about 2-3 years for a wizard with average talent to go from 1st to 2nd level.

Here, the ordinary talent was the ordinary talent that magicians talked about without even assuming a single attribute.

This, the Trinity, was included here.

Leon shortened this to six months with the help of the elixir and the jewel that provided an absurdly good training environment.

‘It takes a lot longer to go from level 2 to level 3… ‘

Even that passed in just 5 months.

While Leon was watching the match and assessing his own skills, Leah came up onto the field.

Her opponent was Rowan.

‘Didn’t you say it was 2nd class? … Is the difference between the two not that big?’

What Leon felt while dealing with Porn was that although it was a first-class difference, there was a difference that was quite unapproachable.

Leon, unlike Porn who used ordinary black magic, could not have guaranteed victory if he had not used Arpina’s unique magic to drastically reduce the time it took to manifest magic and not overused the artifacts he received as rewards.

Since both Leah and Rowen would have learned their own magic, the difference wouldn’t be that big.

Artifacts were also not something that could be held in very large quantities, especially in special cases like Leon.

‘Should we simply judge the competition based on differences in talent?’

Leon watched the duel intently this time.

The first one to attack was Leah.

“Aqua Sentinel!”

As expected of a disciple of Arpina, Leah seemed to have learned the same basic Arpina magic as Leon.

Although Leah had a light attribute body, there was nothing as efficient as Alpina’s basic magic for training an apprentice magician.

Blue slime floated around her.

It was a blue that felt much clearer than Leon’s slime.

‘Is it a difference in magical power? … … or is it just a difference in attribute talent?’

Leah, who has a light attribute, would probably be weak against water magic.

While Leah was shouting the starting word, Rowan also shouted the magic he had memorized first.

“Fireball!”

A fireball similar to the triple fireball Leon had used appeared around Rowan.

Rowan didn’t attack Leah straight away with the fireball.

Since it was a water magic that was compatible, it seemed like they were being careful.

“Blast!”

Leah shouted Aqua Sentinel’s link magic and immediately began chanting another magic.

“Light, come into my hands. Lumen Manus!”

“Flame Barrier.”

As Rowan raised his palm, a wall of fire rose from the ground.

She was a 2nd class so she could memorize 2 magic spells.

Rowan followed immediately.

“The walls become sharp thorns and stab the enemy!”

The flames that had risen up, whether it was a chain magic or not, turned into several thorns and rushed towards Leah.

Leah’s palm of light collided with Rowan’s fire thorn.

bang-

It was Leah who stepped back from the intense clash.

“Oh?”

“Indeed… … .”

“Oh, to withstand that attack… … . Is this really a talent for the light attribute? No, this might be due to high magical power… … .”

One of the magicians who had been watching the duel seriously from the front muttered quite loudly.

It was Leah who frowned and stepped back, and Rowan’s face didn’t look too good either.

Common sense tells you that it would be difficult for a 1st class wizard to block a 2nd class wizard’s attack head-on.

Just blocking it was enough to hurt Rowan’s pride.

Rowan immediately threw the fireball he had summoned in advance at Leah.

“The spark is a manifestation of will, rise up and annihilate.”

“Water Wave!”

Leah responded with Aqua Sentinel’s linked magic. If it had been ordinary magic, she would have blocked it with her compatibility and talent, but Rowan’s magic was extraordinary.

Sparks flying from a single giant fireball transformed into smaller fireballs and rushed toward Leah together.

Leah shouted urgently.

“Wake up, magic power. Infusion!”

Leon’s eyes widened.

The magic that Leah hurriedly shouted out was the exact same magic that Porn had used.

A magic that suddenly increases physical abilities to an overwhelming degree.

‘Is this also a public magic…?’

Leah quickly dashed through the water stream and dodged the oncoming fireball with quickened movements.

By then Rowan was reciting spells one after another.

A few more exchanges of words followed.

The battle, which was starting to tilt little by little, ended in Rowan’s victory as Leah’s magic power ran out first.

Leon, who was watching this, analyzed the reason why Rowan won.

‘The advantage of memorization.’

It was a victory for Rowan, who had a little more leeway as the number of magic spells he could use by just shouting the starting word increased.

Otherwise, I think Leah would have won.

Since he was still a first-level apprentice, his strength in light attribute magic was not clearly evident.

As if Leon’s analysis was not wrong, after the duel, all the high-ranking magicians were praising Leah.

Even though it was Rowan who won.

Leon, who was going down to the training ground to celebrate, stopped when he saw people bustling around Leah.

‘It’s true that Rowan is a carnivore, so he has incredible talent… … .’

Leon glanced at Rowan’s face.

As expected, her face was darkening noticeably.

A man who appeared to be her teacher approached her and patted her on the back.

It seemed more like consolation than celebration.

Rowan must have felt this too, as his expression grew even worse.

Rowan’s master soon approached Arpina and began to converse with her.

She was left alone.

Leon, who was looking at Rowan, soon felt her gaze and turned his head, meeting her eyes.

She bit her lips hard and turned her head away again.

Leon briefly observed Leah, who was being praised by the surrounding wizards, and then approached Rowan.

“You won, but why does your face look so ugly?”

“Are you asking because you don’t know?”

Rowan opened his eyes sharply.

Leon shrugged.

“It’s true that you won, but is there really a need to blame yourself like that?”

“Don’t you see the people crowding around him? They all think he’s better than me, so I don’t even look at him.”

“I came to congratulate you?”

“… You didn’t think I’d be happy like an idiot, did you? You came here to tease me too! Oh, is it because you can’t approach him right now that you came to me?”

Leon shook his head.

Since I had no intention of having a long conversation anyway, I blurted out what I was going to say.

“You’re really good at linking with fire magic.”

“What do ordinary people know… … .”

“Okay, congratulatory gift.”

Leon cut off Rowan and held out his palm.

On top of it was a magic recovery honey candy.

“What is this… … .”

“A candy that gives you strength when you eat it when you’re tired.”

“What… .”

“Just take it.”

I forced Rowan into giving him a piece of candy.

“Don’t get carried away by other people’s reactions and dig yourself up. Eat this and cheer up. That’s all I have to say.”

Leon turned around without waiting for Rowan’s reaction.

If I look at the reaction that’s going to come out anyway, I guess he’ll just shoot himself in the face.

In fact, Leon was serious about hating Rowan.

To be more precise, I was indifferent.

The indifference to the point where he would never step forward if he were in a situation where he would be harmed, no matter what happened to Rowan.

But when I saw him frustrated and alone, stuck against a wall, I felt a sense of pity that I couldn’t figure out where it came from.

If you were to picture Park Hyun-soo stuck at home after losing the use of his legs, that would be a leap of faith.

‘The sight of a young child already feeling frustrated on his own touches something in human nature.’

Is this also a modern person’s sensibility?

Leon glanced at the wizards around Leah, who seemed quite stern.

Then my eyes met with Leah’s.

“Ugh.”

‘… … No. Why was I surprised?’

Leon smiled awkwardly and waved at Leah.

Even though Leah found Leon, her face didn’t brighten up like usual, and she just looked back and forth between Leon and Rowan.