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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: Yuziro
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Paaaaang—!
An intense flame kicked off the ground.
The emotions and skills she had accumulated, the efforts of a girl who had endured long hours, were finally beginning to bear fruit.
Adrian’s words, spoken sometime in the past, began to replay in Charlotte’s ears.
Blossoming.
Some might bloom with talent, but what Charlotte was now blooming was a burning flame.
In other words, effort.
It didn’t matter if no one recognized it.
Charlotte herself knew better than anyone.
She knew best what kind of time she had spent.
Adrian smiled too.
Just as Charlotte knew herself, Adrian was well aware of the terrible time she had endured.
The will to overcome even the despair of the last moment, Adrian also believed in and supported it.
‘I can do it.’
That she was the protagonist of this world.
This world existed solely to kill her, but even that, Charlotte Forte was a person who could overcome it.
Everyone had a hard time following Valerie and Charlotte’s movements with the naked eye.
But Adrian followed Charlotte’s movements without missing a single moment.
“…It’s strange.”
Charlotte quietly muttered.
She was pushing her body to the limit more than ever before.
But why did her body and mind feel so calm?
Why was her vision becoming even wider?
The magic related to body strengthening was no longer recognized as ‘magic’ but as a part of the body, maximizing its effect.
All mages strived for embodiment.
The materials Charlotte received certainly contained explanations about embodiment.
But she hadn’t thought she could do it.
Surprisingly, she was doing it now.
It was okay if some things were not in her sight.
Because she could feel them through her senses.
Hwaaaak—!
The violet flame that wrapped around the girl like a decorated garment.
Leaving burning footprints on the path, the girl closed the distance with Valerie.
Hwaaaak, sweat formed on her forehead and instantly vaporized.
The ends of the girl’s bangs were slightly burnt from not being able to withstand the flame.
“Valerie.”
She could feel Valerie running ahead.
The distance between Valerie and Charlotte.
The speed of Valerie and Charlotte.
In which flow Valerie was using her mana, and at what moments she had openings.
How to penetrate those openings.
Would it be arrogant to say this?
No, it wasn’t arrogant.
In fact, Charlotte was currently perceiving everything in this space solely through ‘flame’.
“……!”
“Hello.”
This time, it was Charlotte who greeted her.
She could win.
If they were to fight now, she could definitely defeat Valerie.
“What… are you?”
The moment Valerie slightly twisted her body, the heat around Charlotte grasped everything about Valerie.
Before she could even draw a magic circle with her fingertips, Charlotte accelerated even more.
She rammed into Valerie like a bull with her shoulder.
Paching—!
With a powerful collision, Valerie was pushed to the side.
It was a natural consequence that the magic circle she was drawing was shattered.
Clearly bewildered eyes.
Those eyes belonged to Valerie.
“…What, what is this?”
She had changed so much that it was hard to believe she was the same person.
Her movements were so fast and natural that they were hard to see even with mana-assisted eyes.
“In that time… you embodied? That curse?”
‘It’s impossible.’
It’s impossible.
Valerie could only think that.
Even demons found it difficult to quickly embody the power obtained in exchange for a curse.
“It’s, im, poss, ibleeeeeee!”
Valerie once again rushed towards Charlotte.
The wildly roaring wind element engulfed Charlotte.
‘Slow.’
For some reason, it felt slow, so Charlotte took a deep breath.
It was stronger than any magic she had faced before, and it had the precision to completely eliminate the disadvantage of the wind element, which was to scatter.
But.
Now, Charlotte was confident that she could overcome it.
Red magic circles began to appear around Charlotte.
Softly, but not slowly.
The circuits quickly intertwined and completed the magic circle.
This happened before Valerie’s wind element reached Charlotte.
‘Even if I can’t block it, it’s fine.’
Even if Valerie’s attack was ultimately stronger, even if her attack was deemed insignificant, and even if she fell.
It was okay now.
The girl had not learned a belief that would never fall, but a belief that she could get up no matter how many times she fell.
A huge flame erupted from the magic circle.
The flame descended as if riding on top of Valerie’s wind element.
And soon, it swallowed it.
As if this flow had always been its own.
It might have been impossible for Charlotte to emit magic as powerful as Valerie’s, but it was entirely possible for her to exploit it in this way.
“Oh my…!”
Headmistress Violet jumped out of her seat.
‘At that young age? And a failing class student?’
Had she awakened to elemental fusion?
“Hoo.”
Adrian also sighed in relief every time, but he couldn’t help the cold sweat forming on his forehead.
A clean fusion of flame and wind elements.
Exploitation of power.
Everyone was astonished by these facts, but the most surprised was, of course, Valerie.
“This… this can’t be… this can’t be…!”
The wind was sharply coated on its surface.
In other words, a thin mana barrier was densely cast to prevent other elements from intervening.
…But, even so, it was penetrated so easily?
“This can’t beeeeeee!”
But even that scream, which was almost a plea, was soon swallowed by the flames.
It burnt.
It devoured everything.
The violet flame.
As if to burn Valerie’s will to ashes, the flame engulfed the entire arena.
For Valerie, it was like a death sentence foretelling the outcome of this match, and for Charlotte, it was like a declaration of war, vowing to win this match.
“…Wow.”
Michelle muttered without realizing it.
The girl from the Meinens family, who always pursued only the noble and beautiful, had to admit it.
That Charlotte’s flame was currently the most beautiful thing in this arena.
A noble from a fallen family.
Michelle had never lost the honor of her family.
Talent.
A girl who had lost everything was answering this world with flames.
So
“…It’s beautiful.”
She had no choice but to mutter that.
Kwaaaaaang—!
Charlotte’s magic and Valerie’s magic collided head-on.
The momentum was good, but the magic that had just been embodied was not enough to defeat a demon.
Valerie was still dominant.
“You’re… cocky! Cockycockycockycocky!”
Valerie poured out her mana like crazy, and Charlotte endured it with all her might.
‘Output, the problem is output.’
If she could increase the output, Charlotte could win.
Then, Adrian’s words came to mind.
The one sentence that Charlotte had never forgotten.
‘If I draw that stroke…’
She could definitely double the output.
Then, only the result of Valerie falling and Charlotte winning would remain.
But how would she draw it?
Currently, both hands and all her nerves were focused solely on ‘enduring’.
‘No, there is a way.’
It was reckless, but there was a way.
The method of drawing the magic circle on the body.
Charlotte had suffered from frequent illnesses since she was a child, so her body was already full of small magic circles—
But there was one place where she could still carve a magic circle.
‘Eye.’
The blind eye.
The eyeball that she had lived thinking of as a missing part of her body.
‘I’ll carve it.’
In that area, she would carve not ‘sight’ but ‘will’.
The mind, driven to the extreme, finally breaks the limit.
A stroke is drawn.
The sensation of her eye being torn, the sensation of burning, all kinds of pain rushed in, but Charlotte rather smiled.
Why?
Because the world felt clearer.
At this moment, Charlotte existed solely as Charlotte.
Carve.
Carve!
The painful sensation soon subsided.
Rather, the magic circle carved into her eye seemed to caress her eye.
Tears of blood flowed, but it didn’t matter.
She would vaporize this too.
‘This is… the true me. The true attitude towards magic.’
The flame burnt and burnt again.
The flame that even burnt flames.
She could feel it completely.
That which could be contained in the flame, what she had contained.
That will lead to victory.
It is only a path to victory.
To win.
It was so simple.
Just to enforce the existence of oneself, the path one has walked, on the opponent.
Yes, this is Charlotte Forte.
Hwaaaaaak—!
The flame finally began to cover Valerie’s entire body.
The green had long since been engulfed by the violet.
“H-how? How on earth!”
Valerie’s eyes widened.
“Kya, kyaaak! Kyaaaaaak!”
Valerie’s body began to burn.
Screaming madly, Valerie quickly collapsed.
“I am…”
The moment Charlotte muttered that, Valerie saw the girl’s eye.
A pentagram.
The star-shaped magic circle which was engraved in the girl’s red eye.
Realizing that she couldn’t win against the girl shedding tears of blood, Valerie said her final words.
“…Charlotte Forte.”
Hwaaaaaak—!
The flame never forgave Valerie.
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[Charlotte is METAL AS FUCK]
