Chapter 93

【93】92.

“Seems like it’s not a riot.”

Leo, who had come to the magic class, clicked his tongue.

The lockdown announced in the morning was enough to turn the entire school upside down.

Even though quite some time had passed since breakfast, the students were still preoccupied with talk of the lockdown.

“I understand that everyone is unsettled due to this sudden situation. However, you should not be distracted by such things and thoroughly prepare for the interdepartmental competition.”

Ren spoke with a lackadaisical tone.

“You all know, but the interdepartmental competition will also have external guests observing.”

The restless atmosphere instantly changed.

External guests.

In other words, it referred to the real powers from various countries.

Not everyone who attends Lumeran becomes a hero.

However, simply having attended the hero academy increases the possibility of reaching a high position in the future.

“Today, we will be practicing the Fly magic as we did in the last class.”

The students tensed at Ren’s words.

Fly magic itself is not hard to perform, but the degree of skill with which it is used is extremely difficult.

Moreover, the students of Lumeran’s Department of Magic are all accustomed to Wing Magic, making it even harder.

“And the four students who passed during the first session should come forward.”

At the call, Leo, Chelsea, Chloe, and Abad stepped forward.

Ren pulled out his staff and swung it through the air.

Shaaarrrr-!

An entrance appeared in midair.

“The four of you will receive guidance from Senior Alby.”

The four, including Leo, immediately crossed through the space to the next practical area where Alby was waiting.

All the students looked enviously at them.

‘What is the difference between me and those guys! d*mn it!’

While Emio gritted his teeth in frustration, the four moved to where Alby was waiting.

The four arrived at an overwhelmingly large practical ground that was more than enough for their use and approached Alby who was sitting on a chair in the corner of the training ground.

“Professor Alby. Professor Ren sent us here.”

At Chloe’s words, Alby, who had his eyes closed, opened them.

“Chloe Mueller, what do you think your weakness is?”

“Huh?”

Caught off guard by the sudden question, Chloe thought for a moment before answering.

“Spell power?”

“…Isn’t your spell power already the strongest among the four of you?”

“Isn’t it better if it’s stronger?”

“Chelsea LeWalyn, what do you think your weakness is?”

“Close-range combat ability!”

“You’re already good at close-range combat even for a battle mage, aren’t you?”

“It’s not enough! I think I should be able to knock out an average student from the Department of Knights!”

With a loud shout, Chelsea lifted her fist into the air, and Alby sighed deeply.

“Ren’s educational philosophy is to maximize the strengths of individual students. You are all supposed to polish what you excel at here in Lumeran.”

Alby’s words caused Chloe and Chelsea to nod.

“But it’s not good to focus too much on one area. Chelsea LeWalyn, your biggest flaw is your spell power.”

“But professor, I’m a battle mage!”

“Be careful not to misunderstand, Chelsea LeWalyn. A battle mage fights on the frontlines of the battlefield, but they are not knights. No matter your position, the fact that you are a wizard does not change.”

“Hmm…”

“What is a wizard’s basic role?”

“To change the tide of a battle!”

“With your current skill level, do you think you can change the tide of battle on the frontlines?”

“Uh, no.”

Alby crossed his arms.

“You should set that as your training goal.”

“Specifically, what kind of training should I do?”

“You need to practice multi-incantation.”

“Multi-incantation?”

Chelsea wore a subtle expression.

She already practices multi-incantation quite a lot.

Truthfully, incantation itself is Chelsea’s greatest forte.

“I’m not talking about the typical multi-incantation.”

Alby raised both his hands.

A Fire Ball formed in his right hand.

And in his left hand…

“Hell Fire?”

The strongest fire magic spell was created.

Summoning simultaneous spells of similar power but different attributes is relatively simple.

But casting both a lower-tier and an upper-tier spell at the same time is difficult.

Since their output differs significantly, the basic frame of the magic circuitry is also different.

Naturally, the greater the gap between the spells, the harder it becomes.

“If you aim to be a hero as a battle mage, you should be able to do this with ease.”

At Alby’s words, Chelsea swallowed hard.

“Let’s begin practice.”

“Roger!”

Chelsea promptly began her intense training.

Alby’s gaze turned to Chloe.

“Chloe, I assume you know your own weakness?”

“I’m weak in melees.”

“Yes. Actually, melee battles are the common problem of all types of wizards except battle mages. Although your mobility secured by Wing Magic helps you avoid melee fights, it doesn’t fundamentally solve the issue. Especially with you, Chloe. You are a prototypical wizard.”

“Eek!”

Alby’s words caused Chloe to flinch.

The typical wizard who focuses solely on magic studies.

Of course, as a student of Lumeran, she had done basic physical training, but that’s about it.

“Try learning martial arts to prepare for melee fights to some extent.”

“During magic class!?”

“Today’s class is a special one for the interdepartmental competition.”

“But, really…!?”

“Go and warm up.”

At Alby’s words, Chloe’s shoulders drooped as she started warming up to the side.

“Abad LeWalyn.”

“Yes.”

“At this stage, you don’t have any particular weaknesses.”

At those words, Abad smiled faintly.

Though he lags behind Chelsea in close-range combat and Chloe in spell power, overall, Abad is the strongest among the first-year wizards.

“Help Chelsea.”

“Yes.”

“Leo, you should also assist Chloe with her training.”

“Understood.”

After assigning tasks to the two of them, Alby closed his eyes.

Leo and Abad approached Chloe and Chelsea who were preparing their individual practices in the center of the training ground.

“Thinking about it…”

At Abad’s words, Leo stopped walking.

“Isn’t this the first time the two of us are having a conversation?”

Abad smiled faintly.

Even though half the semester had passed, there hadn’t been much interaction between Leo and Abad.

They weren’t in the same class, nor did they have magic classes together.

“True enough.”

“Your sister always depends on you. She seems to be receiving a lot of help from you.”

“I’m also having a great time at school thanks to Chelsea.”

At his response, Abad wore a gentle smile and said,

“In this year’s interdepartmental competition, I plan to take you down.”

At this quiet and calm declaration of war, Leo wore a surprised expression.

“I’ve been thinking about you ever since the entrance exam.”

At the time of the entrance exam, Leo’s skills were nowhere near Abad’s.

“At that point, I thought you were just an excellent knight, but when the semester started, there were repeated instances revealing your prowess in magic and summoning.”

Abad’s gaze met Leo’s directly.

“I found it extremely interesting that there was someone like you. Before I knew it, there you were, running way ahead of me.”

“That’s quite the compliment.”

“It’s not my evaluation. It’s the world’s assessment. In fact, I am grateful for your existence. If you weren’t there, without any clear target goals, my school life would have been boring.”

Abad smiled softly like a gentle spring breeze.

“This time around, in the interdepartmental competition, I will aim for you.”

‘Even I think this guy’s good-looking. He’s not the most popular student among the first-year just by chance.’

Though Selia once joked that Abad was as smooth as butter, he was indeed the most popular student among the first-year males.

After this conversation, Leo didn’t dislike Abad.

With a noble demeanor like a challenger, Abad bowed in response to Leo’s words and approached Chelsea.

As Leo watched his retreating back, he chuckled to himself.

“This is embarrassing. Being popular has its problems too.”

*

“What did you talk about with Abad?”

“He mentioned he plans to take me down in this year’s interdepartmental competition.”

“Celia and Duran are also getting psyched up.”

“Meh, they’ve been like that since the start of the semester.”

While Leo casually spoke, Chloe added,

“From what I heard at the last class leader meeting, Chen Sia and Eliza are also targeting you.”

“…”

“Wardens rarely speak and are typically unmindful, so it doesn’t seem like they’d be aiming at you…”

“Last week during the Summoning Class, he said he’d take me down.”

“Really?”

Chloe chuckled while covering her mouth.

“What’s so funny?”

“Nothing, I just thought it’s amazing how our class representative is so popular!”

Seeing Chloe teasingly laughing hard, Leo smirked.

“And you? Are you not targeting me in this year’s interdepartmental competition?”

“Huh? Not particularly.”

“It’s strange. During the midterm exam, you kept saying that was your purpose, so much that you were obsessed with a strange book and had such a dark circle that it reached all the way down.”

“Hey! Why is that coming up now!”

Even though Chloe turned bright red and kicked her feet in frustration, Leo adroitly dodged.

“Leo. During this practical exam, I must defeat you!”

“Don’t!”

As Chloe, frustrated by Leo mimicking her tone, wildly swung the magic book she had,

“Whew-! Whew!”

Chloe finally got exhausted, and while fixing her hair, said,

“Just so you know, my goal is still you.”

“Hmm?”

“To recover the performance level fitting the top candidate of the northern division first.”

“Good job.”

“Hmph!”

Chloe turned her head away.

“Still, in any case, I should train my close combat ability as Professor Alby said. Let me help you with stretching.”

Leo helped Chloe with her stretching.

He assisted by pressing on her back while she sat in a split or lifting her while they leaned back-to-back.

“Ooooh, refreshing.”

While wiggling around on Leo’s back, Chloe muttered.

“Uncle?”

At this, Chloe lightly pulled on Leo’s hair.

“Hey, doesn’t a wizard usually learn martial arts? What weapon did you learn with?”

“First and foremost, swordsmanship is typically the most neutral.”

“Then could you try swinging the wooden sword?”

Leo pulled out a wooden sword from the subspace and handed it to Chloe.

Chloe took it out and got into a stance.

“Wow? That’s actually impressive.”

Surprisingly well-formed posture caught Leo off guard.

Loving to read books, Chloe had read through the swordsmanship textbook perfectly, so her form was quite good.

“Haaap!”

With a shout, she swung the sword.

Watching this, Leo nodded.

“Typical body coordination weakness, huh?”

Chloe pouted.

“Rather than struggling with melee, isn’t it better to use magic and improve mobility and escape melee quickly?”

“It is a method, but even then, you need basic preparation for melee encounters.”

“Huh?”

“Hold the sword like this.”

Leo got close to Chloe and placed his hand on her hand.

Suddenly getting so close that their breaths nearly touched, Chloe fumbled with words.

“And gently use your wrist. Focus your strength in your waist.”

“……!”

As Leo’s hand touched Chloe’s waist, her shoulders trembled like a startled cat.

“Isn’t this class getting surprisingly sensual?”

At the voice from behind, Chloe jumped in surprise and distanced herself from Leo.

Leo turned his head to look behind.

“Hello, dear juniors.”

There was Elena, seated with her legs crossed, leaning on her staff.