I fired a water bullet from my palm.
"No incantation?! You fool — you fell for it! I have a skill called [Double Tongue]! The real spell is this one — take my lightning magic!"
Once the fire-magic-style incantation finished, what emerged was a single bolt of lightning.
He'd deliberately used an incantation that evoked fire, hoping to gain the elemental advantage.
Well, he'd gotten one over on me.
"Now just stay paralyzed, you filthy commoner!"
But the lightning failed to pierce through the water bullet and dissipated, hitting the son of Count Kentzole instead.
"Ugh, gahh— why…?"
"Pure water doesn't conduct electricity. And the gap in magic power was so vast that your lightning got nullified."
I did hold back, though.
I'd suppressed the power as much as possible — enough to just soak him through.
"You're nothing but a commoner plaything, yet you dare humiliate me?! I'll have my father kill you!"
A plaything, huh. So he really had been planning to humiliate me all along.
Soaking wet, the son of Count Kentzole dragged his broken leg behind him and limped away out of sight.
◇◇◇
"When it comes to magic incantations, if you say the incantation as-is, the opponent can guess what spell is coming, so the caster has to get creative too. For example, after chanting the words 'destroy this,' you might fire a fireball, or launch a rock projectile instead."
So the idea is to use words that could be interpreted any number of ways.
"Another effective tactic is to cast a completely different spell from the words you're speaking aloud. However, this often causes confusion in an amateur's mind and leads to failed activations, so it's really only for advanced users."
Seems like it'd be easier to just cast honestly and settle things with raw power rather than pull little tricks.
"If you have a support skill like [Dual Tongue], even a novice can activate spells without being pulled in by the chant they're actually saying out loud."
Oh, that's exactly what Count Kenzol's son did!
"When this lecture is over, Alan, please come to the headmaster's office."
Well, yeah, that tracks.
◇◇◇
"Hey, Alan, should I come with you?"
"No, it's fine, Melty. I'll go by myself."
"The headmaster is a high-ranking noble too. Who knows what he might do if you go alone… Besides, I'm the daughter of a major trading house, so maybe I could smooth things over with a bribe or two."
The word "bribe" came out of nowhere like a wrecking ball.
Come to think of it, Sophia did mention that the Latille Trading Company was pretty massive—ranked among the top one or two among trading companies belonging to the Commerce Guild.
They probably dealt with nobles all the time, so bribery might just be an everyday occurrence for them.
"Sorry, I just… I'd feel bad dragging you into this, Melty…"
"Got it. Then be careful, okay?"
◇◇◇
"You came. Good. I've already heard from Lord Geese."
"You must be Headmaster Fourier. As for what this is about—there are too many possibilities to narrow it down…"
The man sitting in the headmaster's office was a silver-haired gentleman approaching middle age.
He seemed mild-mannered, but the magical power he was concealing was considerable.
"Count Kenzol has called for you. He's asked that I bring you to the count's manor."
"Huh? No way."
"Indeed. Lord Gears told me to let young Alan do as he pleases. He can enjoy his youth, or he can master magic — either is fine. This academy was originally established to nurture promising magic users, after all..."
But it seems like the noble heirs just do whatever they want?
"The actual students in the training program have a proper curriculum and attend lectures seriously — in a separate classroom. The content is far too advanced for those pampered young masters to follow. Once you've finished the basics, you should give it a try."
"So you separate the serious ones from the casual ones."
"We had no choice — there were too many incidents otherwise."
Although honestly, it felt like there were plenty of incidents even so.
◇◇◇◇◇◇
The academy is divided into two tracks: an open-attendance course designed to accommodate useless noble heirs, and a rigid elite track with a fixed roster for those genuinely aspiring to excellence (so that the former don't interfere with the latter).
At this point, my relationship with Sofia is limited to occasionally talking when the need arises — we're on decent terms, but nothing more.
Skills: [Reverse], [Divine Eye], [Sword God], [Phantom Thief Gentleman], [Dark Magic], [Rock-Iron Magic], [Holy Magic], [Space-Time Magic], [Blazing Magic], [Frost Magic], [Magic Hand], [Seduction], [Pain Relief], [Complete Status Abnormality Resistance], [Flame Spirit's Protection], [Phantom Demon], [Gale and Thunder], [Dark Spirit's Protection], [Monstrous Strength and Divine Prowess], [Thunder God Sword], [Fortune], [Clear Wind Magic], [Humility]
Rank: Silver (Alisa: Gold)
Thank you for always reading! 😊