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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: Yuziro
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Everyone looked at the representatives who would lead the final match with tense expressions.
Isabel poked Lotten next to her and asked,
“I heard the rules changed from this year. What happened? Did it get harder?”
“It’s a bit misleading to say that it’s harder… It would be more accurate to say it became more dangerous.” Lotten replied while pushing up his glasses.
“More dangerous? Why did it become dangerous? I haven’t heard how the Mana Sprint rules changed yet.”
“Mana Sprint has now become an event that perfectly fits the term ‘combined event’.”
“Combined event…?”
Combined event.
Isabel muttered those words a few times.
And suddenly, a thought occurred to her, making her eyes go wide as if they were about to pop out.
“…Combined event? Then it’s no longer just evaluating running ability?”
“Exactly.”
Lotten calmly nodded his head.
Isabel then looked at Lotten with a face that said, ‘Does that even make sense?’
“If it’s combined… It means they can also use magic that could be used in other events. Then what about combat magic? What if they use that to injure other players?”
“That’s exactly it. That’s why I said it’s not hard, but dangerous.”
Lotten continued, with his arms crossed.
“From the upper-class students’ perspective, the match actually became easier. Because now they can compete using other advanced magic as well. But from our perspective, it became much more dangerous.”
“What if she gets seriously hurt…? I’m so worried.”
“All the academy officials are watching with both eyes wide open, so nothing major should happen. It mustn’t happen.”
Isabel looked around.
She wasn’t the only one with a worried heart; the faces of the failing class students all showed quite a bit of concern.
And for good reason.
If they won this match, they would be close to a full-class promotion, but they didn’t feel like they could win this match…
By the way, one person was nowhere to be seen.
“Oh right, where’s Michelle?”
“She’s not here. She said she was going to watch from somewhere else.”
Well, Michelle was a child who liked to act individually anyway.
Isabel just had to silently cheer for Charlotte from here.
The problem was…
‘Will it really be okay?’
Isabel let out a deep sigh.
No matter how she thought about it, she had an ominous feeling that Charlotte would get seriously hurt.
All the representatives turned their heads and greeted the side filled with their friends.
Exchanging words, communicating with expressions, reassuring them not to worry.
Especially the upper-class representative Valerie had the most carefree face of anyone.
The failing class students also tried to cheer for Charlotte in their own way.
“Charlotte! Don’t get hurt!”
“Fight!”
“You can do it!”
It was a heartfelt cheer, but in the end, Charlotte kept staring silently at the tips of her feet until the end.
With no response coming back, the cheers gradually died down.
And finally.
The match began.
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Firecrackers exploded noisily all over the place, signaling the start of the Mana Sprint.
‘Let’s do it just like we practiced.’
Charlotte strengthened her legs with flames, just as she had practiced countless times.
Leaving behind blazing footprints, Charlotte sprinted forward like an arrow.
Her speed wasn’t considered slow.
As she began to properly distribute her breathing, feeling relieved, something quietly latched onto Charlotte’s side.
“Hello~? I greeted you earlier. Will you greet me back this time?”
‘What?’
Charlotte was running at a very fast speed right now.
But to talk to her so casually like this..
Just how stable was her breathing?
Was this what it meant to be an upper-class representative?
She couldn’t be taken lightly.
“…Why do you keep doing this to me?”
“I’m worried about you~ No matter what people around say, you keep staring at your toes alone. Do you know the rules changed this time?”
“I know.”
“You know, but you’re that defenseless?”
Smiling with an indecipherable smile, Valerie spun around once.
The soft, light green energy enveloped her.
It seemed she majored in the wind element, which was most advantageous for sprinting.
And:
Tap!
The moment she flicked her finger, something flew towards Charlotte’s feet.
Thin, light green threads instantly bound Charlotte’s ankles tightly.
“Wha…?!”
Losing the freedom of both ankles in an instant, Charlotte couldn’t overcome the momentum and fell forward with a thud.
Because she had been running at such a fast speed, she had to roll on the ground several times.
“……Ugh!”
As if clearly intending to taunt her, the threads that had bound her ankles disappeared as soon as Charlotte fell.
The impact to her head was so great that Charlotte couldn’t get up for a while.
But Valerie’s voice reached her ears.
She was circling around the fallen Charlotte.
It was a clear act of taunting.
“Next time, it won’t end with just binding your legs. I’m a pacifist in my own way.”
Heh heh, Valerie’s snicker fell directly onto Charlotte’s ears.
“So… don’t ever get up from that state again? Got it?”
She was getting further away so fast that the last part asking “Got it?” was almost inaudible.
And a moment later.
“……”
Grrrr.
Gritting her teeth as if she would really grind them, Charlotte pressed both hands on the ground.
Slowly.
Very slowly, Charlotte lifted her head and wiped the nosebleed that had started flowing down her face.
She looked at the lingering remnants of the wind element in the air.
“……Never.”
Although the girl’s specialty was the red flame element, a voice colder than any ice escaped her lips.
“I will never give up. What do you know…”
Fwoosh, flames enveloped Charlotte’s body once.
Charlotte then began sprinting like crazy, with bloodshot eyes.
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“Ho ho ho ho!”
Professor Maria, in charge of the upper-class students, burst into laughter as if she was very satisfied.
The other professors said to her one by one.
“Congratulations. Your upper-class student is doing really well. I can see at a glance that her ability to utilize the wind element is outstanding.”
“Of course? That’s only natural. She’s a student I’m in charge of, after all.”
“I checked her grades, and until recently, she was at risk of being demoted, but how did she change like that?”
“That’s also because she’s a student I’m in charge of. I paid some attention to her.”
“Is that so?”
Headmistress Violet, who had been listening to the professors’ conversation, tilted her head slightly.
The ability Valerie was demonstrating now was indeed great.
But.
‘Was she originally like that?’
As far as she knew, she wasn’t the type to smile like that and had a very timid personality.
There was a strong sense of dissonance.
Rather than feeling that the person had developed, it felt like the person had changed.
Anyway, the conversation between the other professors and Maria continued.
“But Ms. Maria. Isn’t it a bit dangerous?”
“What is?”
“The actions of student Valerie are quite rough…”
“Of course they have to be rough. She’s doing it within the rules, so is there a problem? To win, you have to do everything, naturally. It’s shameful to even say such a thing.”
Maria turned her head to look at the headmistress.
“Don’t you agree, Headmistress? Since the rules have changed like that.”
“Well, that’s true.”
Violet glanced at the reactions of the officials and students watching the match.
The excitement was hotter than ever.
It couldn’t be helped.
Humans were bound to be enthusiastic about stimulating spectacles.
“Oh my. Our Valerie is doing great. Well done!”
At the end of Maria’s gaze, Valerie was sprinting.
With each step she took, her body moved forward swiftly as if she were a whirlwind.
It wasn’t an ugly movement, but a smooth one, yet it was amazing enough to be the fastest of all the other competitors.
“Ho ho ho ho! As expected of our Valerie!”
This time, that gaze turned to Adrian, the professor of the failing class.
Perhaps because his class’s student had fallen, Adrian remained silent despite most professors trying to match Maria’s mood.
“Excuse me.”
When called like that, Professor Adrian shifted his pupils slightly to look at Maria.
“Yes.”
“You’re not upset, are you? Because your class’s student fell.”
Pat!
Pat!
Paaat!
Even while having that conversation, Valerie was quickly advancing forward.
To Maria’s eyes, Adrian’s expressionless face seemed to look desperate.
Or so she thought.
“Heh.”
Adrian burst into laughter with a snicker.
It was such an overt laughter that it surprised Maria.
“How could that be?”
Finally, Adrian turned his head completely to face Maria.
“Charlotte will win anyway. So I’m not upset at all.”
“…What did you say?”
That was his remark.
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[ho ho ho ho, merry christmas!]
