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Chapter 51: Even a child wouldn’t do that, let alone a mage.
Chapter 51 – Even a child wouldn’t do that, let alone a mage.
Squeak!
As Ivan was incapacitated and conceded, the referee immediately blew the horn to signal the end of the match.
It didn’t take long.
Neither of the representatives had to be sent to the infirmary. But the process was more intense than anything else, and the audience was silent as a mouse.
“Wow…”
That silence was broken by someone’s small exclamation.
That was the start.
One by one, two by two… the students from the magic department started to clap.
It spread like a wave of water, and soon it became a huge tidal wave.
Wooaaah!
The tidal wave of cheers engulfed Flan.
He frowned and tried to get out of the arena.
“Flan, Student Flan!”
Sephia. She rushed into the arena with a bunch of reporters.
“Vi, vi, vi, victory!”
She reached Flan’s side with her eyes wide open.
“You won! You really won!”
“…”
He stiffened his expression as she shouted in his face.
Sephia pulled out a pile of papers from her bag.
“You won the first event of the Sword and Magic Festival for the magic department! What do I do, I have so many questions! Oh, right. First of all… when did you learn summoning magic?”
“I think it’s been decades.”
Sephia jerked her head back.
Flan realized he had made a slip of the tongue after he said it.
“De, decades? Did you awaken the summoning branch as soon as you were born? Is that what you mean?”
“It’s a joke.”
She jumped like a frog in a boiling pot.
“Oh, come on! You scared me! I almost believed you!”
“I’ll be going.”
Flan had a lot to think about, and a lot he wanted to think about.
And he had even more to do.
First of all, the circuit in Ivan’s last strike was something he had never seen before.
Was it unique or not? He had to research it to find the answer.
If it was truly unique… could he achieve the same effect by using various magics?
If he could, how? He had a lot to explore.
But then Sephia’s urgent cry came.
“Wait, wait a minute, Student Flan! You have to follow the tradition!”
“…Tradition?”
“Yes. Tradition!”
Sephia nodded and handed him a stick. Her face was full of anticipation.
“You have to say a few words of impression in front of everyone. Is there a more venerable tradition than this?”
Flan eyed the stick.
The structure itself was simple.
It seemed to have only the effect of amplifying the sound.
Sephia opened her mouth excitedly.
“Please say something. Everyone is waiting for you to open your mouth, Student Flan. Me too.”
“An impression…”
He looked around the audience again.
Still, the students from the magic department were spilling their joy.
Some even hugged each other, and the cheers in the arena didn’t seem to die down.
Far away, Scarlet, the knight of the remnant fire, was also quietly looking at Flan.
Seeing this, he felt an impression that he didn’t have before.
Flan scratched the stick roughly with his sleeve.
Zzzzzz!
A harsh noise immediately filled the arena. The students in the audience grimaced and covered their ears.
In the middle of the arena, where the silence was restored, Flan opened his mouth.
“What are you so happy about?”
The faces of everyone began to show bewilderment.
“Do you clap when the sun rises in the morning, and cheer when the moon rises at night?”
The arena was quiet.
Flan’s voice echoed heavily.
“Even a child wouldn’t do that, let alone a mage.”
His sharp gaze swept over the audience.
“Just nod once, and end it there.”
He said calmly, and turned his eyes to Scarlet of the Udit family.
Scarlet crossed her arms and tilted her head.
She still didn’t know what Flan was talking about.
***
I didn’t avoid Scarlet’s eyes, which flickered like flames.
Instead, I looked at him squarely.
“That’s all it takes for a mage to beat a knight.”
With that, I turned around.
I wondered how stupid Scarlet looked… I would ask him when I met him later.
But then, the next moment.
Aaaahhh─!
The silence that was almost empty shattered, and a huge cheer filled the stadium.
“…?”
I turned my head slightly.
The knight students who were stunned, the magic students who were even more ecstatic, the pure joy in the shouts and claps…
That enormous wave was directed only at me.
“You don’t understand, do you?”
Shaking my head slightly, I took a step.
As I left the place, the reporters started to follow me.
“Hey, wait! Student Flan!” “Student Flan!” “Can I ask you one thing, please?”
It reminded me of the previous world, so I sped up my steps.
?
“…”
Professor Audrey stared blankly at the amazing scene.
“We won…”
After murmuring that, Audrey’s eyes turned to the president.
“Mr. President, we… we won!”
“Yes. I saw it clearly.”
Conette smiled with satisfaction and nodded slightly.
“It’s… it’s unbelievable. Mr. President, did you see Flan’s magic?”
“Let’s save the magical story for the meeting. First of all…”
Conette pointed to the other professors with his eyes. Audrey’s eyes quickly followed.
“…look at that.”
At the end of his gaze were the professors who had fiercely opposed this event, including Brody.
They all had the same expression.
An expression of disbelief and loss of words.
“They’re all completely out of it. Well, I can see why.”
“Let’s enjoy this whole scene. That’s enough for now.”
As if to feel this moment more deeply, Conette slowly breathed in and out.
“Professor Violet will have a lot to say at today’s meeting. I’m looking forward to it already. Oh, by the way…”
Conette looked around.
One of the seats in the professor’s row was empty.
“…why isn’t Professor Violet here?”
“Oh, that… well…”
Audrey smiled awkwardly and pointed to the front of the audience with his finger.
Far away, in the front row of the audience.
“…”
Holding his bare hat in his hand, Violet smiled with utmost satisfaction.
?
Evening time, the cafeteria for the first-year students of the magic department.
Bang!
A student kicked the door of the cafeteria and came in.
The sound was so loud that the chatter stopped at once and all eyes turned to him.
“Hoo, hoo…”
The boy gasped for breath.
His face was all sweaty, but he didn’t even think of wiping it. His cheeks were red, indicating that he was quite drunk.
And then, the next moment…
Squeak.
The boy smiled brightly, showing his teeth.
He looked around with a shining smile and slowly opened his mouth.
“You all know, right? In the first event of the Magic Sword Festival, the battle…”
He paused for a moment and took out a paper that was folded several times from his pocket.
He unfolded it with a magic, and declared.
[ Magic Department Wins the Battle Event, First Victory in 20 Years ]
“The magic department won!”
At the same time, an explosive reaction erupted.
“Yaaahhhhh!”
Becky jumped up from his seat and shouted hooray. Thanks to that, Louis, who was next to him, flipped over the plate and wore it like a hat.
Louis had met Becky a few times.
He remembered him as someone who always looked at the other students’ faces, but this was the first time he saw him so happy.
“Ha ha ha…”
But even as I flipped over the food, laughter came first.
It was only natural.
How could I be angry in this situation?
I grew up slowly realizing that I had to live in submission to the knights, ever since I was born as a mage.
How hopeless it was to know that I could never surpass some people, no matter how long I walked this path.
But the magic department won.
The dark and narrow space suddenly opened up and brightened.
The light I felt for the first time was incomparably bright and warm.
Would this feeling be any different for the other students?
Flan.
It was all because of that guy.
‘It was Ivan’s swordsmanship. That was it.’
Mages use magic, knights use swordsmanship.
That was the element that most clearly explained the difference between mages and knights.
Because their differences were clear, mages and knights walked different paths and did not understand each other…
‘The knight department must have been completely turned upside down, too.’
What Flan showed this time.
He replicated Ivan’s swordsmanship exactly.
It was not only magic, but also a spark that shook the foundation of swordsmanship.
Flan has lit the fuse, and Louis couldn’t be more excited.
I didn’t know what kind of explosion would happen, but one thing was certain: it would be huge.
“Hooray! But, how did we win? I still don’t know how we did it.”
“Swordsmanship… He copied it? How is that possible? He didn’t have any artifacts or scrolls.”
“And the opponent was Ivan, right? The unbeatable Ivan of the first year!”
The cafeteria had been like this ever since.
The joy of victory and the curiosity about Flan were mixed together, swirling like a storm.
The professors were in a mess of their own, and there was no one who could calm the students down today.
Thanks to these factors, no one had filled their stomachs in the space that was made for eating.
Becky grabbed a spoon as she thought of Flan.
She brought it close to her mouth and put one hand on her waist.
The image from before wouldn’t leave her head.
I muttered without knowing.
“…Just nod once and end it.”
I said it quietly as if it was a monologue, but it seemed to be loud enough for the people around me to hear.
The girls next to me burst into laughter.
“Puhaha! Becky! That’s not even close!”
“Wow~ Did you just try to imitate Flan?”
Everyone clapped and laughed at Becky’s poor imitation.
“What, what? Did you hear that?”
The girl’s face turned red as if it was about to explode.
A few commoner girls hugged Becky like a doll.
“Hey, hey… Be, gentle…”
“We won! The magic department won! I don’t know how we did it, but we did!”
“Ke… Keek…”
Becky’s face started to turn pale, but the girls’ hugs only became more intense.
But even in this moment of joy, there was one person who didn’t join in and grimaced.
The girl who was silently nibbling on her food was Hailey.
“Hailey, are you okay?”
Louis asked, wiping off the food stains on his uniform.
Hailey quickly changed her expression.
“Huh, what?”
“I was wondering if you were sick. You’ve looked so bad since earlier, and you haven’t eaten much.”
“Oh…”
Hailey put down her chopsticks and pressed her chest with her hand.
She couldn’t describe it.
It was a suffocating feeling that she couldn’t express with words.
“It’s nothing. I just have a stomachache.”
“That’s too bad. Why did you have to get sick on such a good day?”
“…A good day?”
“Yeah, a good day. Flan beat Ivan, didn’t he?”
Louis nodded with a smile.
He was genuinely happy about the situation.
Flan beat Ivan.
Even as she repeated it silently in her mind, Hailey couldn’t believe it.
She had seen it with her own eyes.
“Hey, Louis.”
Unable to bear the tightness in her chest, Hailey opened her mouth.
“Are you okay, Louis? You were supposed to be the representative.”
“Yeah, I’m fine.”
Louis nodded easily.
“I realized it for sure after watching today’s match. Flan was the right choice for the representative.”
His words hit Hailey hard.
“The more I think about it, the more amazing he seems. He was the one who suggested changing the criteria for selecting the representative, and he proved it with the result in the end.”
“…”
“By the way, I’m going to ask him to teach me some magic later when he has time. I have to learn a lot from him, the amazing guy.”
Hailey was lost in thought.
She had given up something to get closer to Louis, but that something was more amazing than Louis.
?You should do the same.
Suddenly, Flan’s words echoed in her ears.
She slowly understood what he meant.
What should she think of Flan, what should she do when she meets him, what should she say to him…
All of a sudden, she didn’t know anything.
“I’ll go first.”
“Okay, take care. You said your stomach hurts. Rest well.”
Without even saying goodbye properly to Louis, Hailey ran out of the cafeteria.
She walked. And walked.
Until she passed by the library.
“…!”
Hailey trembled unconsciously.
She saw the person who had turned the magic department upside down.
Flan.
He was standing still, browsing through the books.
He was just scanning the books with his sharp eyes, but the scene was like a painting in itself.
Even the smallest and simplest actions, like turning the pages with his fingers, were full of dignity and grace.
His red eyes were also incredibly deep and serious.
He was calm and lofty, even though he was the cause of the storm that swept through the magic department.
Like the eye of the storm.
No, no.
This can’t be.
This is not it.
This is not how it should be.
‘You’re Flan, aren’t you?’
The Flan that Hailey knew was not like this.
He couldn’t be like this.
Every time Flan turned a page, Hailey’s shoulders twitched, wondering if he would look this way.
She swallowed her saliva unconsciously.
Should she greet him first, or offer him some light congratulations, or just approach him and say something…
Even as Hailey felt like her head was about to explode.
“…”
Silently, Flan only turned the pages.
He had no interest in Hailey.
Not even a little bit.