I also update with an extra chapter at lunchtime!
"Well then, attendant-kun. Sorry about this, but I can't use Bloodline Magic in this academy."
This was after the joint magic practice began, once Clyde had designated Ermes as his mock-battle opponent.
Those were the words he let slip in front of Ermes.
"Naturally, Bloodline Magic is divine magic. The gap in performance between it and any other magic is, quite literally, as vast as heaven and earth. Even you know that much, right?"
"Yeah."
Whether or not it was "divine magic," he certainly knew that much, so he gave a halfhearted reply.
Clyde furrowed his brow slightly at Ermes's response, but quickly composed himself and continued.
"Therefore, when a user of Bloodline Magic battles someone who can't use it, the former will always win. This isn't just limited to you and me — it's a universal and absolute truth."
"..."
"So here's my proposal. — Why don't we both fight using only General-purpose Magic? Surely even you're not so shameless that you'd eagerly take on a battle you're guaranteed to win?"
That was apparently what he was getting at. Honestly, it was a proposal Ermes had predicted from the start, so he would have preferred Clyde just say it outright.
"I don mind."
"Oh, really? I expected you'd push back a bit more, but you're surprisingly easy to deal with."
At Ermes's easy acquiescence, Clyde nodded with a surface-level expression of pleasure — yet, just as expected, his eyes harbored undisguised delight.
...Perhaps Clyde, too, was confident in his abilities as a pure mage.
"A battle between users of General-purpose Magic alone is surprisingly far from trivial. After all, since we're both using the same magic, the raw difference in magical ability will be laid bare with no room for excuses! It's the perfect way to gauge your true strength!"
As if to confirm that very suspicion, Clyde spread both arms wide with a confident air, raising his magic power.
"Now then, let's begin. And let's find out — which of us is the superior mage!"
And without anything noteworthy happening, Ermes won, as was the norm.
"…………Huh."
Clyde sat slumped on the ground, staring blankly at Ermes.
The only emotion showing on that face was the same disbelief he'd worn back at lunchtime.
……Well, he was admittedly pretty strong.
His magic power output was either innate or impressively high, and while his control leaned more on raw talent than finesse, it was still decent. With a few exceptions, he was probably top-tier among everyone present.
But the thing is, his opponent was Ermes.
'The difference in ability between mages becomes obvious when they use the same magic' — that was absolutely true.
And under those exact conditions,
Ermes had never once lost a head-on clash using identical magic — with one exception, Rose.
So to put it bluntly, it was an easy win.
In fact, he'd had enough leeway midway through to focus on observing Bloodline Magic.
"…………"
Perhaps the outcome was just too far outside his expectations.
He sat dazed, silently looking up at Ermes.
But before long, he seemed to notice the gazes of everyone around him, snapped back to his senses — and after a brief moment of thought,
"— Really, this is a problem."
He shook his head with a weary look, as if to say "good grief," and slowly rose to his feet.
Pointing straight at Ermes with an outstretched finger, he declared:
"You — you used Bloodline Magic, didn't you?"
"...Excuse me?"
"Excuse me? That won't do. It's obvious if you look — every single spell you cast was far beyond the scope of General-purpose Magic. That has to be Bloodline Magic. Did you really think I wouldn't catch on?"
"..."
"I know about it, you know? That your Bloodline Magic can handle multiple attributes. You disguised its effects and passed it off as General-purpose Magic, didn't you? Honestly, pulling something like this just to win — nobles are... no, you're beneath contempt. Well, still, just
one
time,
I'll turn
a blind eye.
See? One more round. This time, really fight with nothing but General-purpose Magic, okay?"
Full of excuses, brimming with subjective assertions, and somehow I've been automatically roped into another round — but, he had a point.
The substance of what he was saying wasn't wrong.
For starters, in their current bout, he had without question used nothing but General-purpose Magic. Not Enhanced universal magic — he had deliberately held his spells to performance levels within the scope of General-purpose Magic. The reason Clyde had judged his magic to be "beyond the scope of General-purpose Magic" was simply because his superior baseline magic power had boosted its performance.
But — there was no way to prove that in a convincing manner.
Ordinary nobles had no way of knowing the inner workings of magic. That meant there was no way to determine whether magic that was stronger than normal — Enhanced universal magic — was a product of the spell's inherent performance or the caster's own skill. He couldn't make them understand the structure of magic itself.
Whether Clyde knew this or not — Ermes was fairly certain it was the latter — he had seized on that very point, refusing to acknowledge Ermes's superior baseline magic power, and forcibly declared it to be "a result of the spell's performance."
"..."
As long as the other side refused to understand, there was no way to explain, and even if he did, they would never be convinced.
So, he made a deliberate choice.
"— Understood. Then, one more time."
He decided to go along with Clyde's reasoning.
"Rest assured. This time, I'll only use 'the same magic' as you."
"Hmph, as long as you understand. — Then, shall we get started right away?"
Having secured a verbal promise, Clyde and Ermes stood up and faced each other once more.
"— Hah!"
Simultaneously, Clyde unleashed a fire General-purpose Magic with a slightly ambush-like quality.
But Ermes didn't panic—he responded by firing an identical fire General-purpose Magic of his own. The two spells cancelled each other out in the middle.
Next, Clyde launched a lightning General-purpose Magic. Ermes likewise countered with his own lightning spell. It vanished in the middle.
An ice spell fired without a moment's gap was handled the same way. The two annihilated each other perfectly in the middle.
"— Wha—"
"What's wrong?"
At this point, even Clyde had to have noticed.
As he began to break into a cold sweat, Ermes spoke in a flat, emotionless tone:
"This isn't against the rules, is it? As you said, I'm not using anything other than 'the exact same magic as you.'"
That was exactly right.
From the start, Ermes had been firing spells of the same element and same power at the exact same timing as Clyde, but from the completely opposite direction. The result was that every spell Clyde cast was beautifully neutralized at the midpoint between them.
But such a thing would normally be impossible unless you had foresight. What made it possible was—
"...Huh."
In the shade of a tree near the training grounds. Nina, who had been watching, murmured with an amused and delighted expression.
"That's what I taught him. Impressive—he's already got it down pat."
Indeed. His technique was an application of the training Nina had given him.
In close-quarters combat, she could read the attributes and power of an opponent's next spell by sensing the flow of their magic power — perceiving it before it was ever fired.
It was a technique made possible only by her extraordinary sensory abilities and deep mastery of magic. Ermes had learned its core principles from her — and on top of that, she had adapted the technique she originally used for evading magic into one for nullifying spells.
He couldn't yet match her level of precision, but Clyde's magic power flow was exceptionally easy to read. At this point, he could read the next move without any trouble when it came to simple general-purpose magic.
"Tch—!"
No matter what he threw, it was canceled out. Frustrated by that fact, Clyde began ramping up his rate of fire.
Yet Ermes remained utterly unfazed, continuing to nullify each spell with perfect precision. And then — he slowly began closing the distance toward Clyde.
As the gap between them shrank, the time between a spell being cast and its impact grew shorter, which should have made nullification correspondingly harder — but Ermes' rhythm didn't waver in the slightest.
Finally, when he'd closed to within a single step, he casually extended his hand — and with a light thud, pushed Clyde.
Clyde crumpled to the ground. The result was an identical scene to the one from before.
"..."
"—Shall we go again?"
Those were Ermes' cold words as he looked down at Clyde.
He clenched his jaw so hard his teeth nearly cracked. His expression brimming with humiliation and fury, he glared at Ermes — and at the same time.
—With a faint, sinister surge, an alien magic power rose from Clyde's entire body.
"!"
Could he really be thinking of using his Bloodline Magic here?
Ermes narrowed his eyes in wariness — but even he, it seemed, hesitated to unilaterally authorize the use of a forbidden spell.
Drawing his magic power back in, he now wore a somewhat calmer expression as he rose to his feet once more.
"...Ugh, fine. You're that dead set on me using
Bloodline Magic
Bloodline Magic
If you're that desperate to beat me using Bloodline Magic, then fine."
He let out a sigh as he said this.
"...Um? Right now, I only have the same magic as you—"
"I was wondering what excuse you'd come up with. It's obvious you must have used Bloodline Magic somewhere else, or else you couldn't have pulled off something like that."
—Even after going that far, it seemed he didn't have the slightest intention of admitting defeat.
"Fine, you win. Unlike His Highness Aster, I'm gracious enough to acknowledge my loss. It seems your Bloodline Magic did have enough power to surpass my General-purpose Magic. Naturally."
With words that conveyed the opposite of his true intent, Clyde spread his hands wide.
"Besides, it seems all the other A-Class students overwhelmed their opponents by more than expected. I have to lose just to keep things balanced, don't I? Maintaining that balance between classes is an important duty for a class representative, after all."
Speaking as if he had no choice, he then turned to Sarah.
"—Miss Sarah. Just so there's no misunderstanding, this time, they were the ones who used Bloodline Magic. ...And you are kind-hearted. Please, don't let anyone cleverly talk you into something with malicious intent. Forgive my presumption, but I felt compelled to offer this warning."
Leaving behind these words that made it quite unclear who he was referring to, he shot Ermes one last dark glare.
Then, leading the A-Class students away, he departed.
Ermes felt he was beginning to understand the man called Clyde.
In the end, he was no different from the nobles they had encountered before. He put on a soft-spoken act, trying to seem different from the rest, but his true nature was exactly the same. The fact that he was trying to smooth it over made it even worse. That was Ermes' feeling.
This time, too, Clyde seemed to think he'd managed to smooth things over, but the fact remained that he had been defeated in front of everyone. He was incredibly trusted by the A-Class students, but wouldn't this incident reveal a crack in that façade?
More importantly, Ermes turned around.
"............"
There stood his B-Class classmates.
All of them wore expressions of somber dismay.
That makes sense. Having enrolled in this academy to pursue magic, they were once again shown just how absolute the gap was, reminded that they were the ones on the receiving end.
And to make matters worse, the one person who had offered them even a sliver of salvation in that moment was Ermes — the very person they themselves had been oppressing.
(…Well, now)
What should he even say? Should he approach them at all?
With those thoughts in mind, he continued walking forward.
The full-on thrashing would have to wait just a little longer — save it for later enjoyment, if you would…!
Next time, it's all about Class B!