“Roark.”
“Thanks for buying me time. It really helped.”
After blowing Kyle-sensei away with a gust of wind, I reached out a hand to Lily, who was lying on the ground, soaked.
“Are you okay now?”
“Yeah, thanks to you.”
I nodded to Lily’s question. It took more time than expected, but I managed to adapt…… I think.
“Then, would you care to tell your teacher? The trick to how you managed to use spiritual arts at your original level again?”
“……I was actually misunderstanding the premise from the start.”
Since Kyle-sensei asked while brushing the dirt off his clothes, I gave him the answer I had deduced.
“I thought the reason my spell formulas were failing was because spiritual power was flowing in from the dense ambient mana. But it was actually the opposite. We were constantly leaking spiritual power out of our bodies. Right?”
“…………”
“Leaking?”
Kyle didn’t confirm or deny my theory, merely offering a smile, but Lily tilted her head in confusion.
“Lily, why are you so exhausted?”
“Eh……?”
“I was watching from the back. You didn’t use spiritual arts; you just let your spirits attack while you gave commands. Isn’t it strange for you to be that tired?”
“……That’s…”
Lily’s breathing was still erratic, and her complexion wasn’t great. She hadn’t been moving violently or using spells. Given Lily’s massive mana capacity from her contracts with two high-ranking spirits, this was abnormal.
“The reason the mana is so thick here is because of the massive amount of spiritual power leaking from me and the spirits. The reason the formulas collapsed wasn’t because power was forcing its way in, but because of a lack of power. I thought I had an excess of power because I was leaking so much of it myself.”
“……I see.”
“By the way, the deciding factor was this fog.”
“The fog?”
I answered while reaching out to scoop the mist drifting around us. Yes, the final clue was the fog created by Lily’s spirit, Shin.
“When I tried to use wind arts, the fog allowed me to notice a flow of wind that was different from the formula I had constructed.”
“………!”
I had been frustrated by formulas that collapsed as soon as they were built, but the unnatural wind currents visualized by the fog finally allowed me to realize the cause. Honestly, if the fog hadn’t been there, Kyle would have taken me down before I figured it out. Thinking about it that way, I can’t thank Shin enough for putting the fog out.
“……You’re quite observant.”
“So, am I right?”
“Who knows?”
When I asked for the answer, Kyle-sensei simply began weaving a formula. It seemed the Q&A session was over.
“Now that you understand the cause, it’s a pure contest of skill as spirit-users…… I wonder if you can beat me?”
“I respect you, Sensei, but without your contract spirit…… I don’t feel like I’ll lose.”
“Cheeky brat. Then try it.”
“You don’t have to tell me twice.”
The moment Kyle-sensei clapped his hands together, a massive wave of water rushed toward us, just like at the start. It was a threat earlier, but now that I was back to full strength, I could handle it.
“Uplift!”
I summoned an earth spirit from its catalyst. Slamming my hand to the ground, I activated the art, causing the earth to rise and form a wall, protecting Lily and me from the approaching wave.
“Lily, we don’t have much time. Listen carefully.”
“……?”
“We’re going to break through Sensei.”
Ideally, I wanted to teach Lily how to handle her mana, but there was no time during combat. Therefore, I decided to tell Lily the plan to get past Kyle-sensei first.
READ THE ORIGINAL TRANSLATION AT LOCALIZERMEERKAT.GITHUB.IO
“He’s completely adapted.”
Kyle muttered as he watched Roark defend against his spiritual art. He didn’t feel any instability in the magic being used. It was safe to assume Roark had already gained control over his spiritual power flow.
“In that case, I should suppress Roark before he can teach Lily the trick.”
Lily was a top student, though she was often overshadowed by the likes of Misha, Roark, and Kay. If he taught her the secret, she would adapt instantly.
If that happened, Kyle’s chances of winning while his own spirits were restricted would plummet. He couldn’t give them time.
Kyle quickly shaped his hand into a gun and aimed at the earthen wall the two were hiding behind.
“Water Bullet.”
The high-pressure bullet of water pierced through Roark’s wall, striking the area where the two should have been. As the impact kicked up a spray of water, he fired follow-up shots.
While the water spray fell like rain around them, Kyle dashed toward the crumbling wall. Suddenly, a powerful gale blew from the front, and fragments of the broken wall flew toward Kyle like shrapnel.
“You can’t stop me with just this!”
Kyle crossed his arms to protect his face and closed the distance without flinching as the clumps of earth struck his body.
“Thunder Bolt!”
“Huh!?”
Before Kyle could reach the wall, lightning raced across the ground, which had been soaked by his own water arts, and flowed directly into his body.
“……Gugh!”
His body stiffened from the electric shock, and he let out a groan of pain. Seizing the opening, Roark emerged from behind the collapsed wall and charged at him.
“Don’t underestimate me!”
Forcing his numbed muscles to move with spiritual reinforcement, Kyle lunged forward to close the gap, surprising Roark, who hadn’t expected him to be able to move so soon.
Roark, failing to react in time to Kyle’s sudden movement, was pinned down after a brief exchange of blows.
“……Tch.”
“Your follow-up was a bit naive, wasn’t it?”
Kyle said as he applied the same binding art he used on Lily to restrict Roark’s movements.
Now the troublesome one was caught. All that was left was to catch Lily and—.
“Got it~”
“……What?”
Turning toward the relaxed voice behind him, Kyle saw Lily hanging from Mizuchi’s tail, triumphantly holding up the passage permit.
“When did you……?”
“It was when I released the wind art. While you temporarily blocked your own vision, I threw Lily toward Mizuchi.”
“……So you were aiming for the permit from the start.”
Kyle had thought Roark’s attack was unusually straightforward, but it seemed his goal was never to defeat Kyle in the first place.
“Yeah. I figured it would be too tough to push through a combat expert like you head-on.”
“Good grief, I was completely played, wasn’t I?”
Kyle sighed as Roark spoke with a hint of pride. He released the water prison, and following its master’s lead, Mizuchi gently lowered Lily to the ground.
“I have confirmed the passage permit. Please, proceed.”
Kyle said to the two winners in a mock-theatrical tone.
“You’ve arrived.”
“Misha……”
When Roark and Lily, having bypassed Kyle, reached the destination marked on the map, Misha and Sena were waiting, seated on chairs that had been set up.
“Good work, you two. It seems you’ve made it through safely.”
“It was pretty close, though.”
“If you made it through, there is no problem.”
Misha replied with a smile as she stood up, taking a metal object from Sena and handing it over.
“With this, you are officially representative members for the Great Spirit Martial Arts Festival. Let us fight together for our academy.”
“……Eh?”
“Ooh~”
Beside a confused Roark, Lily let out a cry of admiration as she looked at the metal piece—a badge featuring the emblem of Eutrea Academy.
“R-Representative members?”
“Yes.”
Misha nodded to Roark’s trembling voice.
“This training camp also serves as the final selection for the members.”
“No, wait, even if you say that, I didn’t really do anything during that test earlier. I left it all to Lily.”
He might have done something at the very end, but that was it. Roark was certain that the credit for the previous battle belonged to Lily, not him.
“Is that so? I heard from Kyle-sensei that it was a magnificent display of teamwork.”
“You’ve already talked to him?”
Nodding at Roark’s words, Misha began explaining the details of the selection test disguised as training.
“What the teachers were looking for this time was your adaptability.”
“Adaptability?”
“Yes. In the Great Spirit Martial Arts Festival, every event is determined by the whims of the spirits, making prior preparation extremely difficult. There may be cases where you have to fight a superior spirit-user in an environment where you cannot exercise your true strength.”
“So that’s why we had to fight Sensei in that place.”
Indeed, the nature of the festival meant you couldn’t choose your opponent or the battlefield. In fact, past festivals were so different from one another that it was hard to believe they were the same competition.
“The content was left to the teachers who have experience in the festival. If you were able to overcome their tests in any form, you should be fine in the actual event.”
“……Well, I get what you’re aiming for, Misha, but is it really okay to decide that easily?”
“To begin with, the students participating in this camp are those who have exceeded the criteria we set. On top of that, the teachers have vetted you, so there should be no problem.”
He had a feeling, but it seemed his place as a representative was mostly decided the moment he joined the camp.
“Roark, Roark.”
“Hmm?”
“How is it? Does it look good?”
“……Yeah, it looks good on you.”
Lily pinned the badge to her chest and puffed out her thin chest with a proud look. Roark nodded with a complicated expression.
“Roark Areas. I will pin yours on for you as well.”
“H-Hey……”
Before Roark could say anything, Misha closed the distance to pin the badge. Amidst a faint sweet scent, Misha’s beautiful face came close, and Roark found himself stiffening up.
“There. It looks very good on you.”
“…………”
As Roark remained silent after being praised by Misha, who had finished pinning the badge, Lily pulled on his sleeve.
“We’re matching.”
“…………Yeah.”
Looking over, he saw Lily smiling happily. Roark nodded with a strained smile.
“Ah, the upperclassmen are here.”
“You’re already here.”
“Good work, you two.”
Listening to the conversation between the juniors who arrived a little later and Misha’s group, Roark finally realized that he had truly become a competitor in the Great Spirit Martial Arts Festival.
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