223rd Chapter
“Are Vargan and Arha really going to duel?”
Upon hearing the news, Finn was heading towards the arena where the tournament had taken place.
He never expected to come back here after the final exam.
Should we call this a side match?
Not a ranked battle or an exam, just a contest.
A match purely to showcase their skills with nothing at stake.
“Let’s see… where should I sit…?”
Passing through the hallway and entering the arena, Finn had to hunt for a seat.
The audience seats were packed to the brim.
It resembled a finals match, with people filling every single spot.
Perhaps it was due to the prominence of Vargan and Arha as the representatives of their respective institutions that even an unofficial match drew such attention.
Despite the match not having started yet, conversations about who would win were buzzing everywhere.
“Ah, there it is.”
Finally spotting an open seat, Finn tapped the shoulder of the girl next to him.
It could be a friend’s reserved spot after all.
“Is this seat taken?”
“Oh, no, you can sit here!”
“Thank you.”
Finn finally plopped down onto the seat.
Buzzing noise swarmed around him like a swarm of bees as he focused ahead.
The view of the arena wasn’t exactly perfect, but it wasn’t too bad either.
Just then, a thought struck him.
“Hmm…? Wait a second.”
Suddenly, he felt something odd.
“The girl next to me… why does she look and sound so familiar?”
Finn found himself glancing sideways.
At just that moment, the girl turned her head at the same time, and their eyes met.
Her increasingly flustered expression and her sharply cut bobbed hair stood out even in the dim light.
Though the lights were dimmed and she wasn’t fully visible, it was unmistakably the girl he met at the meet-and-greet.
Spirit Summoner Erlich.
What a coincidence; he ended up sitting next to her.
“Um… hello?”
“Ah! Yes, hello….”
“…….”
“…….”
“Should I acknowledge that we know each other, or not?”
Regardless, they were acquaintances, so Finn decided to greet her first.
Erlich awkwardly reciprocated, and a few words were exchanged, barely escaping the silence.
“…You came because you’re worried about Arha?”
“Huh? Ah… something like that.”
“Something like that?”
“Ah, no…. Yes, that’s right. You’re here because of Vargan, right?”
“Yep. Not that I’m really worried or anything.”
“Oh, I see….”
“…….”
The two were in stark contrast to the lively atmosphere around them.
What was barely flowing like a clogged stream suddenly ground to a halt, with their gazes fixed straight ahead, showing no signs of turning back.
—Waaaaah!!
However, just then, the match began.
They could finally shift their focus back to the competition, escaping the awkwardness hanging between them.
Vargan, the overwhelming champion of the tournament.
And there was Arha, the genius of Rikeion, who showed no signs of being intimidated by him.
The first to move was the audacious Arha.
Reflective Magic.
The mana enveloping her was similar to a Protector but operated on a completely different principle.
She had the power to reverse any physical force directed at her.
No, it was the power to manipulate it as she wished.
Bang—!
As Arha’s back foot slammed against the ground, the floor seemed to push her back like a springboard.
She shot toward Vargan like a cannonball.
As she flew, her speed only increased.
The resistance and friction she faced became fuel, accelerating her further.
The resistance and friction aiming at her instead fueled her speed.
—Zwaaaang!
Multiple beams of Curse Magic fired at Arha.
The thunderous force shook the air as it rushed toward her, threatening to engulf her.
However, the magic cannons that struck her one after another were being devoured.
Like bullets sinking into water, the magic cannons lost their power and faded away.
The rain of magic cannons poured down, but just like being blocked by an umbrella, they had no effect.
Arha was ‘ingesting’ Vargan’s physical strength as her own.
A grin spread across Arha’s face.
She had already stored eight magic cannons.
And Arha could combine all this power and release it all at once, in one place.
If it touched his body, it would surely cause tremendous damage.
“I memorized a large number of interpretive equations as a countermeasure against Curse Magic. As long as I’m not out of it, I won’t fall for it easily like before.”
In preparation for her battle against Vargan, Arha had finally done something called ‘studying’.
Not just a simple game, but an expansion of knowledge.
Her exceptional mind regarding magic had allowed her to memorize countless equations equivalent to a whole book in the blink of an eye.
In just three days, she could memorize and utilize everything.
“I’ve fully grasped the form of the Curse Magic he showed me before. Even if he tries again, I can swiftly neutralize it. As long as I keep track of his magic flow…”
The Curse Magic that Vargan had used when he first met Arha.
She understood its shape, and even if he displayed something similar, she was confident she could unravel it in an instant.
Ssssssss—!
The twelfth magic cannon was absorbed.
Only one remained.
She was already right in front of Vargan.
“I’ve won.”
A victorious smile crept onto Arha’s face.
Between her and Vargan was the last thirteenth magic cannon. It was gathering its strength, ready to be unleashed with full force.
Arha reached out her hand.
The last magic cannon was about to disappear as it touched the Reflective Magic.
A high-density magic crystal containing the Flame of Corruption was taken away effortlessly.
Arha began to gather all the absorbed powers in her palm.
Everything happened in an instant, and her hand was aimed at Vargan’s face.
She planned to grab his face and unleash all the accumulated power.
“Why are you so relaxed in this situation? Let’s see if you can still act so cool after getting hit!”
Arha couldn’t understand Vargan’s attitude as he stood with his arms crossed like an onlooker.
But it was undoubtedly a show of bravado.
Now that the thirteenth magic cannon had almost been absorbed, she could tell.
Just how tremendous this destructive power would be.
Even absorbing just one would send jolts through her hand, so what about the total sum?
No need to say more.
There was a chance she could accidentally kill him…
“That’s not my concern.”
It was an accident that happened during a match.
What could she do about it?
Swish—.
In the end, Arha, who had absorbed and mastered all the magic cannons, charged toward Vargan at high speed. Her arm extended straight.
Her palm seemed poised to cover her opponent’s face like a looming shadow.
Strangely, however, even as time passed, her palm did not press against his face.
Instead, the corners of Arha’s mouth twisted into a smile.
“You… what the hell did you do?”
“What are you talking about?”
“Cut the act! What did you do?”
“Your words are jumbled and hard to understand. Please explain clearly.”
“So! What the hell did you do to make my body stop in midair?!”
Arha was suspended in the air.
As if time had stopped, she didn’t move a muscle.
Ignoring physical forces, her body, which should have fallen to the ground, didn’t drop.
Her hand extended toward Vargan couldn’t reach him either.
The magical power she had gathered to unleash remained bubbling uneasily…
“…Eh? What’s happening? Why is this?”
The total amount of physical power she combined to release.
In other words, because of Vargan’s magic,
A faint layer of Reflective Magic on her palm began to bubble.
Like soup in a pot boiling over.
The magic simmering with high heat formed bubbles.
“Shit! What the hell is going on—!!”
“What’s going on—!!”
Arha, frustrated by the situation not going her way.
The mana bubbles creeping up her wrist started to tighten around her throat.
Her body temperature shot up quickly.
Accompanied by terrible pain.
It felt like her skin was being stripped away and she was being burned at the stake.
“Ughh!”
With eyes bulging as if they were about to pop, Arha screamed.
The pain was something she had never experienced in her life.
Her body, unable to act as she wished.
Arha bit down hard enough to draw blood, trying to resist, but it was futile.
She couldn’t find a way out.
Her body temperature kept rising, and the pain intensified.
Vargan, observing her, chuckled.
It was clearly the mocking laughter of someone enjoying the unfolding situation.
“Arha, do you know why other magicians don’t use the Magic Cannon aside from me?”
Vargan asked leisurely.
This was obviously a question Arha in her current state of suffering could not answer.
Vargan shrugged his shoulders as if to say it couldn’t be helped.
“The Magic Cannon is simple but so threatening. There’s a good reason why archbishops’ Altife often use it.”
“Ugh, ughhh!”
“But I have yet to see any wizard other than myself use the Magic Cannon. It’s a very simple yet threatening weapon. The answer to that is quite simple.”
Vargan leaned forward into the face of the grimacing Arha.
Foaming at the mouth, her eyes bloodshot, Arha captured Vargan with her glare.
“Because it consumes excessive mana.”
Acquiring the Magic Cannon itself isn’t hard.
Even nobles can easily use it as young children.
However, most don’t use the Magic Cannon.
They simply lack the capacity to bear the massive mana consumption for each shot.
Unless one has the total mana capacity of someone like me.
Even if they could use it, they wouldn’t be able to.
“Moreover, the 13 Magic Cannons you perfectly completed mix in decay magic with the existing Magic Cannons, increasing their mana even more.”
Additionally, knowing Arha would absorb them, he purposely fired them at a higher density. But there was no need to mention that.
Her mind seemed to be wavering between this world and the next, so she probably wouldn’t grasp it anyway.
Let’s just give her a quick answer and wrap this up.
“In the end, you’ve become so lost in your crazy talent that you didn’t even check your basic understanding of magic or assess your current state.”
And that’s why things had turned out this way.
“How embarrassing for me to be here when someone clueless about their own capacity is calling themselves my rival.”
Arha’s reflective magic cannot accumulate energy infinitely.
There’s naturally a limit, and exceeding that leads to overload.
However, Arha had never pushed her reflective magic to her limit until now and had no idea of her current maximum.
What an arrogant fool she was.
“Ah… It hurts….”
Just before losing consciousness, Arha finally managed to utter coherent words.
“Too… ugh. Too painful….”
Her throat trembling, blood tears flowed down her cheeks.
In her miserable state, she opened her mouth again.
Having reached her limit, she had no choice but to set aside her pride and plead.
They needed to end the match quickly and get treatment. Otherwise, it could end up being disastrous.
“Stop, stop… ugh! Please, stop… hiccup.”
Vargan observed Arha closely.
Resting his chin on his hand, he squinted and inspected every detail, lightly responding.
“Why should I?”
“What…?”
“Are you afraid you might die like this? Well, that’s definitely a possibility, huh? But how does that concern me?”
Vargan expressed his confusion as if stating the most obvious thing.
Arha gazed at him through her pained squinting eyes.
“Isn’t this an unfortunate accident during a match? If so, it’s simply unavoidable.”
He didn’t seem to be joking.
Arha cautiously glanced around.
It was a critical situation where her life could end at any moment.
Chancellor Heigel wouldn’t just sit back. Surely the judge would stop the match and rescue her…
“Sorry, but no outside help is allowed.”
As Vargan’s words sank in, Arha saw the familiars blocking the arena.
The familiars stood defiantly against anyone trying to interfere.
For some unknown reason, there were significantly more of them than before. Their menacing aura suggested it would take a long time to reach this place.
“Alright, Arha. It’s your favorite playtime.”
Vargan said, casually holding a staff like a toy.
“Isn’t magic just a plaything?”
He continued his ‘game.’
*
“Ugh, huuuuh.”
“……”
“Huuuh. This is good… so good…”
“Um… are you okay?”
“…Huhuhu.”
After the match ended, Erlich burst into tears as if she had just witnessed an emotional drama.
‘Was Arha’s defeat that heartbreaking for her?’
When the match began, Arha charged in with great enthusiasm.
But after absorbing a whopping 12 magic cannons, she fell under a curse.
She ended up trapped in a situation where the burden of reflective magic left her unable to continue interpreting.
In the end, she stood still, confined in the world Vargan showed her.
As Vargan realized the match was over, he raised his staff and delivered a hearty smack to her head.
When the unconscious Arha collapsed, it all wrapped up rather anticlimactically.
If we revisit what the medical staff said, if she had absorbed even one more magic cannon, she could have been devoured by uncontrolled reflective magic and faced great danger.
Did Vargan sense that beforehand? He didn’t even pull out the 13th magic cannon in the first place.
You could call it a subtle act of consideration.
‘But what was so good about it?’
Her words were entirely incomprehensible.
However, the intensity of those tears was hard to ignore.
With no signs of stopping, I naturally handed over my handkerchief.
Just the right thing to do; if I hadn’t, I would have done the same for anyone else.
“Phew….”
“Are you calming down a bit now?”
“Yes… I’m feeling a bit better.”
“That’s a relief.”
Erlich finally managed to stop crying.
Finn, having completed his ‘mission,’ thought about leaving just like that, but he felt an inexplicable sense of responsibility that kept him rooted to the spot.
Another heavy silence settled.
However, unlike before the match, the atmosphere felt a little softer.
“…So, why were you crying like that?”
A question that had lingered in his mind.
Upon hearing Finn’s inquiry, Erlich, visibly exhausted from crying, managed a tired smile.
“I was so proud of her.”
“Proud?”
“I can only imagine how much she suffered. Losing her eyes to Altife… being ignored by everyone… and yet she endured bravely.”
“……?”
“Even though all I could do was support her from the sidelines… seeing her desperate struggles brought me to tears… Ah, just talking about it makes me want to cry again.”
Erlich wiped her eyes again with the handkerchief.
Finn, baffled and unsure of the situation, blinked in confusion before asking.
“Did Arha lose her eyes in the past?”
“Wha? No, not at all.”
“Really? Then what about Lord Vargan?”
“Of course!”
“Eh?”
“What’s wrong with you…?”
They exchanged bewildered glances, each filled with questions.
Finn sensed there was a significant misunderstanding happening.
He pondered what to do. Prolonging this might create unnecessary complications, so he decided to speak up.
“So… you believe Lord Vargan has injured his eyes right now?”
“Yes… Ah, is that not the case?”
“Not at all.”
“Eh? Then why the bandage and staff….”
“That’s due to other circumstances, not because he’s injured his eyes. But losing her sight to Altife? Being ignored? What even is that about?”
Listening to Finn’s words, Erlich stared at him wide-eyed, her mouth agape.
“…Huh?”
She let out a rather foolish sound.
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