Chapter 17 - Stay – Bring it on!

Kadina Alfire witnessed that entire spectacle from her table in the cafeteria. Even though her face remained calm throughout, it wasn’t the same on the inside. She was brimming with intense frustration as she watched the scene unfold before her. As usual, the victims of her heated scrutiny were Reese Louise and Alfie Lightheart.

The Alfires were one of the most prestigious families, known to have given birth to many talented mages throughout the Kingdom’s history. The attribute that resided within their lineage was [Wind].

Ever since she was a child, Kadina was held in high regard for possessing a rare talent within the Alfire family. Her talent stood out even among the successive generational mages of the Alfire family.

Even so, she never let her genius get in the way of her hard work. In fact, she had always maintained the highest ranks in her middle school (Junior High) up until she enrolled in the Genius School of Magic.

It was almost a given for her to be at the top of the hierarchy and it was also natural for her to take pride in her top position. But she was not a fool that let her pride get to her head. She was only proud of the hard work that never failed to reach her goals.

However, that very perception was now being threatened.

By none other than this duo, Reese and Alfie.

The brazen declaration at the school entrance ceremony replayed in Kadina’s mind.

“… Good grief, what a complete joke.”

The faint mutter didn’t reach anyone’s ears as the wind magic isolated all sounds around her. And if it did, those around her would have been completely terrified.

Although she had gotten a perfect score on the written part of the exam, she had unfortunately lost to the examining instructor during the practical portion, regrettably missing out on having the overall perfect score. As a prospective student, it was not shameful at all to lose to a teacher. It was indeed frustrating but it also motivated her to try harder in future.

However, she could never have expected what would happen next.

It was customary for the top scoring student to have the honor of delivering a speech at the school entrance ceremony. Kadina was convinced of being the top scorer when she was offered the chance to deliver a speech. And yet, on the day of the ceremony, there was another student who stood on the podium to deliver the speech of the top scoring student of the year. He had passed the entrance exam with a score that far surpassed her.

[I aim to be the strongest in this school!]

[Someday I will take over this entire world with my Defense Magic! That is my ultimate goal.]

With an unbelievably perfect score on both written and practical tests, along with that unbelievably insolent and ridiculous remark at the entrance ceremony; this fellow was a commoner who was assigned to the same the [Noble Class] as her.

As a matter of fact, there was another commoner in the [Noble Class].

And that was, Alfie Lightheart.

Possessing the power of four attributes was an extremely rare occurrence in recent years — or even in the entire history of the Kingdom. The school that possibly couldn’t ignore such an extraordinary talent, had allocated an agent just to scout him. In the end, his entrance exam score was only second to Kadina herself.

After being delayed due to various reasons, he finally managed to exhibit his extraordinary talent by simultaneously manipulating all four attributes in the practical class for measuring individual magic power. In terms of pure power, his was equivalent to, or even better than Kadina’s [Wind Strike]. In addition, his casting speed was also a few seconds faster than hers. All in all, it was Alfie’s victory, much to everyone’s surprise.

— Though there happened an even more mind-boggling incident that day, everyone had a tacit understanding that it was a bad dream which was better left forgotten.

Furthermore, his talent in magic wasn’t the only thing that was superior.

Alfie was probably the most talented person within the school right now. Even then, his personality wasn’t arrogant in the least. Or rather, he was a very likable boy. He was highly ambitious, yet friendly and sincere at the same time. Usually when a regular person displayed so much talent by himself, it would automatically turn him into an object of envy to the masses. But in his case, most of the [Noble Class] did not harbor any ill will towards him.

Kadina, too, didn’t feel any enmity towards Alfie besides the sense of rivalry. She felt a kinship with his serious personality. He took things seriously without being complacent of his innate talents, just as she did. If it was a person like him, perhaps he could become someone that would carry this country on his back in the future.

(Sudden switch of the PoV)

On a side note, I was also a tiny bit fascinated by that well-sculptured face of his.

… However, this was exactly why. I simply couldn’t forgive the fact that such a brilliant person was so close with that ‘shameless thing’. It seemed like they were childhood friends but even so, it was hardly acceptable.

If what he said was true, Reese could only use Defense Magic and possessed zero attributes. But how could someone use such elementary magic that’s only used for basic magic practice, to get a perfect score in the practical exam — and to beat a teacher no less?

Not to mention that ‘silver light emission’ during the magical power measurement class. There’s no way that defense magic could be used to destroy something that Kadina’s [Wind Strike] or Alife’s four attributed magic couldn’t possibly hope to destroy. After all, defense magic, as its name suggested, was a type of magic solely used for defense.

Since it contained so much power, it wouldn’t be weird to assume that it belonged to one of the four main attributes. But in the end, it was still very difficult to grasp the true nature of the magic that Reese had used.

… It might be humiliating to admit, but Kadina wished to uncover the truth about Reese’s magic before inevitably driving him out of the school. For that reason, observing his magic in action was necessary.

Hence, the sudden appearance of Blue Hair ended up being quite convenient for her.

Kadina strained her ears to catch up on their conversation.

Thanks to her wind attributed magic, picking up distant sounds was a piece of cake for her. As such, even though she was sitting far from their group, she could still hear their voices clearly.

“Huh? What’s with that fast response?!”

“No, I mean, it’s only natural to accept a challenge with a ‘Bring it on!’ attitude. Right?”

Duels were highly encouraged in the school.

And besides, I was practically picking a fight with all the freshmen with my bold claim at the school entrance ceremony. In fact, it was rather strange that nobody stepped up to challenge me up till now.

“But I’m a noble. Commoners are supposed to back down if they get challenged by a noble, aren’t they?”

“Well, that’s too bad. I prefer the front side more than the back side.” ¹

“B- breasts?? ──That’s not related to this at all!”

Blue Hair exclaimed with a bright red face and hurriedly covered his chest. No, no- now hold on a minute, that’s exactly how a girl would react.

“While I do like breasts a lot but this does not apply to men(derogatory) in the least… hm?”

If you looked at Blue Hair closely enough, you would notice that he was also certainly quite attractive but it wasn’t like Alfie’s cool looking type of attractiveness. It was more of… a cute type?

— Hold on a damn second, this is just my instinct alright. No matter how hungry I am for a woman in my life, I still wouldn’t go for a bastard just because he was a wee bit cute.

And besides, just look at him. Blue Hair was as flat as a washboard.

— Or so it would seem.

No, no, no, no, no, no, no, relax. Calm down.

Alfie suddenly interjected amidst my internal crisis.

“This is probably about the matter from a few days ago. If that’s so, then it’s better if you’d just let go.”

“You outsiders don’t interfere! This is strictly between him and me.”

“Even so, as a fellow countryman, I still can’t stay on the sidelines watching this guy’s victim count keep on increasing like this.”

“—Me? You think I’d lose to this guy!?”

“Alright then, let me put it in a different way.”

Alfie put on a serious look as he questioned Blue Hair, who was glaring at him intently.

“Are you really confident to win against someone who passed the entrance examination with the highest score?”

“Well, this might just be what I’ve heard from the others but doesn’t he only use Defense Magic? There’s no way someone like him would honestly get a perfect score on the practical test, let alone the written exam! I’m sure he must have cheated! I would never lose to a cheater like that!!”

How rude— but it’s not like I couldn’t imagine what he feels like. After all, I have never seen nor heard of anyone that uses Defense Magic the way I do. Excluding myself, even Obaa-san, who has lived far longer than I have, had never heard of anything like that.

“…Ah, if only you knew.”

A small mumble escaped Alfie’s mouth as he let out a sigh to calm himself. Aside from Obaa-san, Alfie was the one who knew my magic the best. That’s why he knew how unfounded Blue Hair’s perception of me was. But only I was able to catch those words, while Blue Hair was just glaring at Alfie the whole time.

“—So then, what are you going to do Reese? You heard what Blue Hair said.”

“Then it can’t be helped.”

I felt the corners of my mouth naturally rising as I loudly exclaimed,

“Latos Ganoark! Let’s have a good fight, shall we?”