Cliffman didn’t return, having used up all his mental energy for the day.
Or rather, he didn’t come back at all. Harriet was glaring at me.
“What the hell are you up to, huh?”
“Just what I said.”
“And you expect me to believe that?”
“Why is participating in Mister Temple a problem?”
“If you force someone to do something, something they wouldn’t have done on their own, that’s coercion.”
“I was only doing it with the best of intentions.”
Actually.
It definitely wasn’t out of good intentions…….
But if anything, I’m wondering if we should be trying to stop Cliffman.
The [Combat] talent is good, but if something goes wrong, not only will I not get the talent, Cliffman will receive mental scars too.
He’s a good kid, even with all his ups and downs, and I don’t want to traumatize him.
I don’t disagree with Harriet, but didn’t Cliffman agree to enter Mister Temple in the end?
“You really like doing things so suddenly that it always confuses me. Don’t you think so too, Ellen?”
Ellen nodded in agreement.
Even I think it was really out of the blue for me to make such a proposal to Cliffman all of a sudden. No, it’s not something I would ever do normally. The problem is the bastard system who gives all kinds of events at the worst possible times, and I could try to live with it.
“…I think I know why.”
Ellen spat out, looking at me.
No, how could you even figure out why I’m doing this?
“You’re trying to go see the Miss Temple contest using this as a reason. It’s an excuse so you can go see that senior.”
No, this.
What a ridiculous misunderstanding!
“Ahh, no. What kind of nonsense are you talking about?”
“You’re using that excuse to go see Miss Temple, it doesn’t even have to be that senior.”
Woah…
Harriet’s eyes widened at Ellen’s words, as if she hadn’t thought of that.
If there’s someone in the world who can make someone feel like trash just by looking at them, that person would be Harriet.
No, guys… It’s technically correct, but not really.
There’s a story behind it… There really is….
“No way, damn it! It really isn’t for that reason, but why can’t I go watch? What’s going to happen if I go there?”
“I don’t see why you can’t go.”
“…Yes.”
You two say it like that but why are you staring at me as if you’re going to eat me?
In the end.
I became a weirdo who came up with ridiculous excuses to go see the Miss Temple contest, pretending to support my friend who was convinced to participate, but in reality, I just wanted to go by myself.
I’ve become a strange guy who even comes up with weird excuses when I could just go confidently.
Eventually, studying took a back seat.
Harriet seemed troubled, and then she looked at me and asked.
“By the way, is that senior going to the tournament?”
“How would I know that?”
“Because she says a lot of things, even things she doesn’t need to say to anyone.”
True, but I don’t know if she’s going to enter the Open Tournament.
Come to think of it, she taunted Ellen and said she could win it all, so maybe she really did enter
“….”
Ellen was silent, so I asked her.
“Are you going to enter?”
“Why?”
She replied as she stared at me.
“Do you think I’m going to lose?”
No, I didn’t say anything.
What’s up with giving that kind of answer right away when I just asked if you’re going to enter?
However, because of what I saw in the classroom today and the things I usually hear… not to mention that Olivia is already in her fifth year.
I think it’s a little bit difficult for Ellen right now….
It may be different for other people, but I’m not good at controlling my facial expressions.
Ellen must have read something in my expression.
“Never mind, I’m not really interested in the tournament anyway.”
She said, she didn’t look too happy about it, though.
“…I’m done for the day.”
Perhaps feeling upset, Ellen sat for a moment and then said she was tired and left. I stared blankly at the closed door of the study room that Ellen quietly closed as she left.
“She’s upset because you said something weird!”
“Why are you yelling at me!”
Besides, it was you who brought up the tournament, and made things get weird. This is totally on you.
“Do you really think… Ellen is going to lose?”
“I don’t know, that’s the thing.”
“…I can’t imagine it.”
Harriet couldn’t seem to imagine Ellen losing.
Anyway, Ellen said she didn’t really care about the tournament, and that seemed to be true.
It was weird.
I would have thought that Ellen would have been fired up to fight Olivia Lanze in the tournament.
But she wasn’t interested in fighting her at all.
And then.
“Hey.”
“What?”
“What about me?”
Harriet suddenly blurted out.
“What are you talking about?”
“Do you think I’ll lose to her?”
This was a completely unexpected question, and I couldn’t help but feel flustered.
“You? What are you talking about?”
“…Why? Can’t I compete in the tournament?”
“In the first place, those tournaments are for combat majors. You major in magic, right?”
“There’s no rule that says I can’t compete, I looked it up.”
Even still.
There’s a reason that magic majors don’t enter these kinds of tournaments in the first place. It’s impossible for them to beat a combat major.
How do you deal with a combat major jumping towards you while you’re casting an offensive spell?
They might see it coming, but they’re limited by things like starting positions and the actual size of the arena.
It’s not even close to being a handicap.
Out of the two of them, I thought Ellen would be the one to participate in the tournament.
“You won’t know until you try.”
But the one joining ended up being Harriet.
Something seems to have changed in her since the incident at Aaron Mede’s mansion.
At that time, Ellen had fought a foe she wasn’t sure she could defeat. It was Harriet who secured that victory.
“… Don’t overdo it.”
“Yeah.”
Harriet smiled at me.
“You’re going to root for me, right?”
“You’re supposed to be rooting for the underdog.”
“What do you mean?”
I sighed as I watched Harriet tilted her head.
“So of course I’m rooting for you.”
I’m rooting for her because she’s going to lose.
“You suck!”
Harriet huffed, annoyed by my comment.
Anyway.
Harriet, not Ellen, has decided to compete in the Open Tournament as a first year.
I’m actually rooting for her.
In the first place… If she makes it all the way up to meet Olivia Lanze, it’ll be a huge accomplishment already.
Harriet has gone off somewhere to sign up for the Open Tournament. Even if she’s a genius, I don’t know how she plans to go up against a bunch of close combat majors, most of them her seniors, in a tournament.
She should have her own ideas.
I wasn’t really motivated to study for the exam, I was just forced to because of the other kids.
I left the study hall and swung my sword in the training room, alone.
Magic Body Enhancement.
“Hmm…….”
It wasn’t something I could call mastered yet, but I was getting the hang of it.
I can move the immovable, and it awakens a whole new set of sensations.
Thanks to the result of taking classes in Temple, along with the improved Self-Suggestion, my combat level has risen to A-rank.
I won’t be able to win in the Open Tournament, but if it’s the First Year Tournament…
Ellen, the strongest favorite, won’t be there.
“Break.”
There was also my new skill, Word Magic.
I muttered to the scarecrow, but nothing happened.
“….”
… I’m getting annoyed.
Self-Suggestion was something that could be used with only my thoughts.
But words must be spoken.
In other words, I have to shout out what I want to happen with conviction.
I can actually see myself screaming at the scarecrow to break, and then nothing happens.
It’s a hundred times more embarrassing than Self-Suggestion.
What kind of punishment game is this?!
I’m the person with possibly the most powerful supernatural ability in the entire world, but why is the amount of power directly proportional to shame?
I’m going to have to yell something out in an actual situation later, and if nothing happens, I’m going to feel incredibly embarrassed!
Why do all my abilities feel like this….
Even worse, the F-ranked Word Magic seemed to be even more ineffective than the F-ranked Self-Suggestion.
In the end.
I guess it doesn’t change the fact that I have a stereotypical comic book hero power. That… A power that only works when things get serious… It’s that kind of thing…
Of course, it’s even more useless to have a superpower that responds well in training but doesn’t work in practice.
I know this is much better.
But it’s still embarrassing as hell…
“That, that. Hey… Do you want to break…?”
Somehow, as I became more and more discouraged, my voice became more and more soft.
But when I’m practicing Word Magic here, shouting at the top of my lungs, I’m confident that I’ll strangle myself if someone walks in.
For hours, alone, I practiced Magic Body Strengthening, Word Magic, Self-Suggestion, and my swordsmanship until the sun went down.
-clunk
I wonder how long it’s been.
“….”
“Uh… Hey.”
Ellen entered the training room dressed comfortably. I wondered if she was still upset about my subtle reaction earlier. Ellen pulled her training sword from its sheath and approached me.
“Let’s do it.”
“Uh, yeah.”
As if nothing had happened, Ellen pointed the sword at me.
I didn’t say anything, and we didn’t fight.
Ellen and I practiced swordsmanship as usual.
-Bang!
-Bang!
-Ka-gak!
“Ugh!”
“Read the trajectory some more.”
“I’m doing it…!”
“You’re not doing it at all.”
-Ka-dum!
I improved, but I was still no match for Ellen.
In the end, this was more important to me than anything else.
Cliffman was still thinking about the contest, but he wasn’t at the training room today.
-Boom!
Ellen brought her elbow against my chin, just in time to stop my sword.
If I had gotten it right, it would have sliced her neck, but she stopped it at the last second
As always, I lost.
Same old, same old.
“….”
“….”
Ellen’s eyes met mine for a moment. Ellen’s face was sweaty and her hair was stuck to her face.
I had always lost, it was my routine.
When she sparred against me, she could go on for hours without breaking a sweat. But these days, she had to put in so much effort that she was sweating.
I don’t remember when it happened, but at some point I realized.
I’m stronger than I used to be. I may not be able to defeat her, but I’m not the same opponent I used to be.
Ellen stared at me, staying still.
She’s shorter than me, so naturally she looks up a bit when she looks at me.
“Do you think I will… lose?”
She asked without a subject.
I wondered if she had been thinking that all along.
“How would I know that?”
“You’re lying.”
Ellen looked at me.
“You’re thinking that I’m going to lose.”
“….”
Olivia would be stronger than Ellen, I had secretly thought that.
“I know, I know I lost. It’s just, I feel that- I’m not bitter, I know that she beat me.”
It wasn’t like they were giving their all, but Ellen seemed to realize it the moment Olivia Lanze grabbed her wrist.
I’m no match for this person.
“Uh, I’m sorry.”
“….”
Ellen stared at me. She walked to the side and hung her training sword on its rack then held onto her hand with her other one.
“Don’t apologize.”
“….”
“I hate that more.”
Ellen sat on the window sill of the training room and stared outside.
Now, it’s winter.
Ellen took off her sweatshirt and coat.
Her black short-sleeved sweatshirt was quite wet. Ellen pulled the sweatshirt coat around her waist and then looked at me.
“I don’t want to win against the senior in a fight”
“…Huh?”
Ellen looked out at Temple, which was now approaching winter.
Sitting on the window sill, swinging her legs, Ellen looked at me.
“I’m going to enter Miss Temple.”
“…?”
“I want to beat her there.”
Ellen picked a completely different place to compete in.
“I don’t want to be Miss Temple. I don’t mind if she wins that. She’s famous and… she’s pretty, so it’s okay.”
“….”
“I, I only need one vote.”
Ellen looked at me as she said that.
I only need one vote.
Whose vote, she didn’t say.
She was just looking at me.
I couldn’t look at her properly.
With that, she slid down from the window sill and walked over to me.
She grasped my fingertips and then gently released them.
Despite her nonchalant expression, I could feel her hand trembling violently as it touched mine.
She couldn’t look at me properly either.
“… I’m going.”
I didn’t expect either of this: Harriet was going to compete at the Open Tournament and Ellen was going to enter Miss Temple.
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