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Translator: Nonon
Proofreader: Silavin
Well, the first-year division is drawing to a close.
After this, it’s the second-year and third-year division’s turn, and then a division that includes the outsiders where I will be participating in, so I guess it does feel like we’re wrapping things up.
Anyway, there are seven matches and 8 people remaining. And as if to liven things up, those who were talented and popular seemed to be purposely pitted against each other, with Ms. Mary, the four first year love interests and Ms. Kriemhild remaining.
And now it was the time for a showdown between Ms. Kriemhild and Ms. Mary.
It attracted attention as the battle between those who used alchemy magic… however.
“Somehow, it’s like a child challenging an adult…”
I don’t know who said it, but it does look like that from the side.
It seems even more so because Ms. Kriemhild is small in stature and Ms. Mary is taller than Lady Violet and seems somehow more mature.
However, the audience has seen how terrifying Ms. Kriemhild can be (the explosion caused by alchemy magic), so they can’t treat her like a child.
“I wonder if Kriemhild is going to be okay…”
Gray, who had been acting strangely nervous ever since he’d returned from buying drinks earlier, muttered worriedly.
When Gray came back, he said that he had ‘been defiled’. In the end, Apricot said that it was ‘nothing’, and the match started, so the matter was left unresolved, but it’s clear that something happened. It seems like he wants to hide it, so I won’t pursue it further, but I’ll ask him about it casually later… He probably just used an expression that was taught to him by Mr. Yellow.
“Hey, come to think of it, a lot of the top remaining participants are from that class that did the haunted house, right?”
“You mean the Luna class? Yeah, I did hear that that class is really good this year. And speaking of the haunted house… I just heard earlier that there was a strange ghost incident. Wonder if things are okay now?
“Oh, you mean a ghost monster appearing on the premises? I heard that it was an advertisement by the Luna class.”
“Really?”
I could hear male students talking from a seat a little away in the noisy arena.
They were probably talking about the appearance of a ghost-like monster at the academy. In truth, it’s a happening from the true route of Ring of Fire, where a ghost-like monster appears at the academy which is supposed to have an anti-monster protection and causes some commotion, after which Ms. Kriemhild… or rather, Ms. Mary exorcises it during the break in her match.
They passed it off as an advertisement for the haunted house but in actuality it’s an event that is the harbinger of disaster and makes you wonder if something is happening at the academy. I had an inkling when I heard about the haunted house, but it looks like it really happened.
Although Lady Violet and I coming to the school festival as a married couple might have been unexpected, the event still seems to be happening properly.
Those gossipy conversations are the best for finding out what’s going on. I have to listen carefully to understand how the story is involved.
“I also heard that a strange metal lump was gliding through the air while speaking with a woman’s voice. There was also a rumour that if she held her hand out, a light would appear and the surroundings would be scorched to a crisp.’
“That must’ve been an advertisement too.”
… Yeah, that has nothing to do with Ring of Fire.
◆
“Ahaha, I lost~! Somebody comfort me!”
Ms. Kriemhild requested with a refreshingly bright smile instead of a gloomy expression despite having lost the match.
We were caught off guard by her cheerfulness for a moment, but then we all chucked at how characteristic of her it was and told her that she ‘fought a good battle’ without a shred of dishonesty.
“Kuh, I was hoping to finish her off in one swoop by binding her with chains and then bombing her with maximum power…”
“Yeah, the binding and the bombing went well. But it was meaningless against the thing she made with her alchemy magic.”
“That tool is so unfair! She was unscathed even after being hit by a bomb that could blow away a dozen orcs at once!”
“You’re also amazing in a way for being able to make that bomb and throw it without hesitation.”
Ms. Kriemhild first bound Ms. Mary’s limbs with a chain (that moved on its own), immobilising her, and once she was unable to move, she went in to finish her off with her most powerful bomb. That bomb was ten times stronger than the ones she had used until now, but it was blocked by a device that Ms. Mary must have had created with unknown alchemy magic. She was probably wearing some kind of a tool that would absorb the impact for her, like the talismans that the participants were wearing.
Well, when someone in the audience said, ‘did she do it?’ I thought to myself that she probably didn’t manage to do it.
“And to top it all off, she paralyzed me with a tool created with alchemy magic and made me lose.”
“So you don’t know how to make the same thing?”
“That’s right, Gray. The tool that Mary brought out today was something I don’t know about.”
Then, in a counterattack, Ms. Mary freed herself from the chains and used a tool, likely made with her alchemy magic, meant to paralyse anyone in the arena, paralysing Ms. Kriemhild and rendering her unable to fight.
The substitute amulet, the paralysing tool, and the way she easily settled the situation after reading Ms. Kriemhild’s strategy showed that Ms. Mary was better at both alchemy and strategy at the moment.
If she’s following the true path I know, she and His Highness are going to synthesise an amazing item soon, and this tournament should give me some hints as to what that item might be, but I don’t see anything like that.
Now that I think about it, there was something a little strange about the way she fought earlier. Rather than strange, it was more like a sense of déjà vu that I felt with Ms. Kriemhild before. I felt a strange sense of incongruity when her tool became useless and she tried to attack quickly with a physical attack rather than casting a spell before she was paralyzed. I can’t really put my finger on that feeling though.
Anyway, if there’s one thing that comes to mind clearly when I look at Ms. Kriemhild now…
“By the way, Vi, can you teach me about magic next time?”
“Magic? The basic magic of four attributes, light and darkness?”
‘Yeah, I just do it by feel. This battle made me think that it’s better if I learned it.”
“My magic is logic-based… if you’re more intuitive, Gray and Apricot might be better at teaching you.”
“That’s not enough, I was warned by my teacher that I would hit a bottleneck if I didn’t learn the basics. You’re very good at teaching, Vi, so I’d like you to teach me from the basics…”
“I don’t really mind… but they should be teaching you the basics in class.”
“… It’s so easy to get sleepy when the teacher isn’t paying attention to each student. It starts to sound like a lullaby…”
“Don’t sleep in class.”
… I should be thankful that she’s having a fun conversation with Lady Violet and the others. She’s the student who can be said to be our only ally at the academy. Things would have been very different had she not been here.
Actually, didn’t Ms. Kriemhild say before that she was finally beginning to understand the basics of magic? What happened to that? Maybe she really needs the love interest from the game to teach her for it to work.
“Lord Clo, what’s wrong?”
Gray and Apricot joined the conversation, and as the semi-finals were about to begin and I quietly got up so Lady Violet and the others wouldn’t notice, Mr.Burnt asked me in a small voice that I could hear.
“I’m just going to pick some flowers. What about you, Mr. Burnt?”
“I’ll accompany you.”
Mr. Burnt gave Ms. Amber a wink, and we quietly left the place.
In this case, accompanying me doesn’t mean that Mr. Burnt is going to the bathroom with me. It’s simply to prevent him from acting alone.
As we walked a little ways away and headed towards the bathroom, I felt lonely in the silence, so I asked him something that had been bothering me.
“By the way, Mr. Burnt, do you not like Ms. Mary’s sound or voice?”
“… I think that she has a good voice, extremely so.”
“I won’t go around blabbering about it or accuse you of talking behind her back, so please speak honestly.”
“… I hate her because she stole Milady’s place. Even though I hate her…! During the play, her voice invaded my ears and is playing a pleasant melody! Oh, this is bad. It’s a drug, a drug that’s… eating away at me!”
… So it was like that, after all.
It was the same during the play the day before yesterday. Mr. Burnt seemed strangely conflicted whenever he heard Ms. Mary’s voice, so I had some suspicions.
Even though she was somebody Mr. Burnt felt resentful about, he must have felt conflicted about finding her voice pleasant… I wonder if Ms. Amber will also feel conflicted if she gets closer to Ms. Mary?
“The battle chants from earlier are shaking my brain! Therefore, Lord Clo! Please fill me with your sound to erase Mary’s voice!”
“Please never use that phrasing again.”
———
・Déjà vu he felt with Ms. Kriemhild
Please refer to chapter 62, “Suspicions arise”
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